

81 






Class _rLlXia4_ 
Rook ■ & S52* 

CqpigiitN __i_i__CL 



CDESRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



VANISHING LANDMARKS 



"When the mariner has been 
tossed for many days in 
thick weather and on an 
unknown sea he naturally 
avails himself of the first 
pause in the storm,, the ear- 
liest glance of the sun, to 
take his latitude and ascer- 
tain how far the elements 
have driven him from his 
true coursed Webster 

"Have you lately observed 
any encroachment upon the 
just liberties of the people?" 
Franklin 




'4&L- 



VANISHING 
LANDMARKS 

The Trend Toward Bolshevism 



< 



By 



0* 



Leslie M. Shaw 



M 



Former Secretary of the Treasury 
Ex-Governor of Iowa 




Laird & Lee, Inc. 

Chicago 



H/V6.+ 



Copyright, 1919, by Laird & Lee, Inc. 
Copyright, 1920, by Laird & Lee, Inc. 



•Jul c4 il 



Vanishing Landmarks 
©CU570818 



IN JUSTIFICATION 

There are several types of intellect, with in- 
numerable variations and combinations. Some 
see but do not observe. They note effects but 
look upon them as facts and never seek a cause. 
Tides lift and rock their boats but they ask not 
why. They stand at Niagara and view with some 
outward evidence of delight a stream of water 
and an awful abyss, but they lift neither their 
thoughts nor their eyes towards the invisible cur- 
rent of equal volume passing from Nature's 
great evaporator, over Nature's incomprehen- 
sible transportation system, back to the moun- 
tains, that the rivers may continue to flow to the 
sea and yet the sea be not full. That class will 
find little in this volume to commend, and much 
to criticise. 

A man is not a pessimist who, when he hears 
the roar and sees the funnel-shaped cloud, directs 
his children to the pathway leading to the cyclone 
cellar. He is not a pessimist who, after noting 
forty years of boastful planning, realizes that 
war is inevitable, and urges preparedness. But 



vi In Justification 

the man is worse than a pessimist — he is a fool 
— who stands in front of a cyclone, rejoicing in 
the manifestation of the forces of nature, or 
faces a world war, expatiating on the greatness 
of his country and the patriotism and prowess 
of his countrymen. 

It is commonly believed that Nero fiddled 
while Rome burned. Conceding that he did, it 
was relatively innocent folly compared to the 
way many Americans fiddled, and fiddled, and 
fiddled, and fiddled, until Germany was well on 
the way to world domination. Coming in at 
fabulous cost and incalculable waste, and saving 
the situation at the sixtieth minute of the elev- 
enth hour, we not only claim a full day's pay 
but seem to resent that those who toiled longer, 
with no more at stake, are asking that honors 
be divided. 

We are now facing a far worse danger than 
the armed hosts of the Central Powers — a fren- 
zied mob each day extending its influence, and 
multiplying its adherents. Shall we again fiddle 
and fiddle, and fiddle and fiddle, or shall we 
both think and act? 

For six thousand years the human race has 
experimented in governments and only China 
boasts of its antiquity. During this period al- 
most every possible form of government was 



In Justification vii 

tried but nothing stood the test of the ages. 
The few surviving pages of the uncertain his- 
tory of nations that have existed and are no 
more, give ample proof that the task of self- 
government is the severest that God in his wis- 
dom has ever placed upon His children. 

When this government was launched the world 
said it would not endure. It has both existed and 
prospered for more than a century and a quarter, 
but there is no thinking man between the seas, 
and no thinking man beyond the seas, who does 
not recognize that representative government, in 
the great republic, is still in its experimental 
stage. Even Washington declared he dared not 
hope that what had been accomplished or any- 
thing he might say would prevent our Nation 
from "running the course which has hitherto 
marked the destiny of nations." 

It is said that when Galusha Grow entered 
Congress he carried a letter of introduction to 
Thomas Benton, then just concluding his thirty 
years of distinguished service. Naturally, Senator 
Benton was pleased with the brilliant Pennsyl- 
vanian, for he said to him : "Young man, you have 
come too late. All the great problems have been 
solved." Ah ! they had not been. Mr. Grow lived 
to help solve some ; others have since been solved ; 
more confront us now than ever before in our 



viii In Justification 

history, and the sky is lurid with their coming. 
If we are to continue a great self-governing 
and self -governed nation, we must spend some 
time in the study of statecraft, the most involved, 
the most complex, and, barring human redemp- 
tion, the most important subject that ever en- 
gaged the attention of thinking men. 

About the only subject which vitally affects 
all, and yet to which few give serious thought, is 
the science of government. Our farms and our 
factories, our mills and our mines, together with 
current news, much of it frivolous, and little of it 
thought-inspiring, engage our attention, but 
statecraft, as distinguished from partisan poli- 
tics, is accorded scant consideration. In the first 
place we are too busy, and, secondly, we do not 
improve even our available time. A young New 
Englander was asked how his people spent their 
long winter evenings. "Oh," said he, "sometimes 
we sit by the fire and think, and sometimes we sit 
by the fire." It is the hope of the author that the 
following pages will invite attention to some 
problems that in his humble judgment must be 
thought out at the fireside, and must be wisely 
solved, if we expect to keep our country on the 
map, and our flag in the sky until the Heavens 
shall be rolled together as a scroll. 

Recent years have demonstrated the abiding 



In Justification ix 

patriotism of the American people and their faith 
in the ever-increasing greatness of America. Few 
there be who would not gladly die for their coun- 
try. The only thing they are not willing to do 
is to think, and then hold their conduct in obe- 
dience to their judgment. The future of our 
blessed land rests with those who can think, who 
will think, who can and will grasp a major prem- 
ise, a minor premise and drawing a conclusion 
therefrom, never desert it. 

It has become painfully commonplace to say 
that the American people can be trusted. While 
their good intentions can be relied upon, no na- 
tion will long exist on good intentions. The na- 
tions that have gone from the map have perished 
in spite of good intentions. The future of Amer- 
ica rests not in the purity of motives, nor upon 
the intelligence, but in the wisdom of its citizens. 
In the realm of statecraft some of the most dan- 
gerous characters in history have been intelligent, 
pious souls, and some of the safest and wisest have 
been unlearned. 

Socrates taught by asking questions. So far as 
possible he who is interested enough to read this 
volume will be expected to draw his own conclu- 
sions. The facts stated are historically correct. 
What deductions I may have drawn therefrom 
is relatively immaterial. The question of primary 



x In Justification 

importance to you will be, and is, what conclu- 
sions you draw. And even your conclusions will 
be worthless to you and to your country unless 
your conduct as a citizen is in some degree influ- 
enced and controlled thereby. 

From the monument that a grateful people had 
erected to a worthy son I read this extract from 
a speech he had made in the United States Sen- 
ate: "He who saves his country, saves himself, 
saves all things, and all things saved bless him; 
while he who lets his country perish, dies himself, 
lets all things die, and all things dying curse 
him!" 

Leslie M. Shaw. 

Washington, D. C, March, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

I Republic Versus Democracy. . 13 

II The Constitutional Convention 19 

III Statesmen Must First be Born 

and Then Made 27 

IV Expectations Realized 31 

V Independence of the Represen- 
tative 36 

VI Trend of the Times 43 

VII Constitutional Liberty 48 

VIII What is a Constitution 57 

IX Preliminary 70 

X No Competition Between the 

Sexes 74 

XI Purposes and Policies of Gov- 
ernment 79 

XII The Result of this Policy 86 

XIII All Dependent Upon the Pay- 
roll 93 

XIV American Fortunes not Large, 

Considering 98 

XV Popular Dissatisfaction 103 

XVI Greed and its Punishment. ... 110 

XVII Obstructive Legislation 115 



Contents 

XVIII The Inevitable Result 121 

XIX Unearned Increment 131 

XX Business Philosophies 137 

XXI The Government's Handicap. . 145 

XXII The Post Office 158 

XXIII Civil Service 161 

XXIV Civil Service Retirement ; 179 

XXV Property by Common Consent 184 

XXVI Equality of Income 193 

XXVII An Historical Warning 196 

XXVIII Capital and Labor 202 

XXIX Can the Crisis be Averted 209 

XXX Industrial Republics . 217 

Conclusion 224 

Appendix 232 



VANISHING LANDMARKS 

CHAPTER I 

REPUBLIC VERSUS DEMOCRACY 

Representative government and direct government 
compared. 

The Fathers created a republic and not a de- 
mocracy. Before you dismiss the thought, ex- 
amine your dictionaries again and settle once and 
forever that a republic is a government where the 
sovereignty resides in the citizens, and is exer- 
cised through representatives chosen by the citi- 
zens; while a democracy is a government where 
the sovereignty also resides in the citizens but is 
exercised directly, without the intervention of 
representatives. 

Franklin Henry Giddings, Professor of Soci- 
ology of Columbia University, differentiates be- 
tween democracy as a form of government, de- 
mocracy as a form of the state, and democracy as 
a form of society. He says: "Democracy as a 
form of government is the actual decision of every 
question of legal and executive detail, no less than 
of every question of right and policy, by a direct 

13 



14 Vanishing Landmarks 

popular vote." He also says: "Democracy as a 
form of the state is popular sovereignty. The 
state is democratic when all its people, without 
distinction of birth, class or rank, participate in 
the making of legal authority. Society is demo- 
cratic only when all people, without distinction 
of rank or class, participate in the making of pub- 
lic opinion and of moral authority." 

The distinction, briefly and concisely stated, is 
this : \ One is direct government, the other repre- 
sentative government. Under a democratic form 
of government, the people rule, while in a repub- 
lic they choose their rulers. In democracies, the 
people legislate; in republics, they choose legis- 
lators. In democracies, the people administer the 
laws; in republics, they select executives. In 
democracies, judicial questions are decided by 
popular vote; in republics, judges are selected, 
and they, and they only, interpret and construe 
laws and render judgments and decrees. I might 
add that in republics the people do not instruct 
their judges, by referendum or otherwise, how to 
decide cases. Unless the citizens respect both the 
forms of law and likewise judicial decisions, there 
is nothing in a republic worth mentioning. 

When we speak of individuals and communi- 
ties as being democratic, we correctly use the 
term. My father's family, for instance^ like all 



Republic versus Democracy 15 

New England homes of that period, was very 
democratic. It was so democratic that the school 
teacher, the hired man and the hired girl ate with 
the family. We sat at a common fireside and 
joined in conversation and discussed all ques- 
tions that arose. It was a very democratic fam- 
ily ; but it was not a democracy. My father man- 
aged that household. 

In very recent years we have been using the 
word "democracy" when we have meant "repub- 
lic." This flippant and unscientific manner of 
speaking tends to lax thinking, and is fraught 
with danger. A good illustration of careless dic- 
tion is found in the old story that Noah Webster 
was once overtaken by his wife while kissing the 
maid. She exclaimed: "I am surprised!" Where- 
upon the great lexicographer rebuked her thus: 
"My dear Mrs. Webster, when will you learn to 
use the English language correctly? You are 
astonished. I'm surprised." 

It is a well known fact that the meaning of 
words change with usage. Some recent editions 
of even the best dictionaries give democracy sub- 
stantially the same definition as republic. They 
define a republic as a "representative democ- 
racy" and a democracy as a government in which 
the people rule through elected representatives. 
This gradual change in the meaning of the word 



16 Vanishing Landmarks 

would be perfectly harmless if our theory of 
government did not also change. Probably our 
change of conception of representative govern- 
ment is largely responsible for the evolution in 
the popular use of the word democracy. 

A far more important reason why the term 
"democracy" should not be used improperly lies 
in the fact that every bolshevist in Russia and 
America, every member of the I. W. W., in the 
United States, as well as socialists everywhere, 
clamor for democracy. All of these people, many 
of them good-intentioned but misguided, under- 
stand exactly what they mean by the term. They 
seek no less a democratic form of government as 
Professor Giddings defines it, than a democratic 
society as he defines that, and likewise financial 
and industrial democracy. They want not only 
equality before the law, but equality of environ- 
ment and equality of rewards. Only socialists, 
near-socialists, anarchists and bolsheviki clamor 
for "democracy." Every true American is satis- 
fled with representative government, and that is 
exactly what the term republic means. 

EQUALITY 

The expression, "All men are created equal',' 
does not signify equality of eyesight, or equality 
of physical strength or of personal comeliness. 



. Republic versus Democracy 17 

Neither does it imply equal aptitude for music, 
art or mechanics, equal business foresight or ex- 
ecutive sagacity or statesmanship. Equality be- 
fore the law is the only practicable or possible 
equality. 

Why educate, if equality in results is to be the 
goal? Why practice thrift, or study efficiency, 
if rewards are to be shared independent of merit? 
Those who clamor most loudly for equality of 
opportunity, have in mind equality of results, 
which can be attained only by denying equality 
of opportunity. Equal opportunity in a foot race 
is secured when the start is even, the track kept 
clear and no one is permitted to foul his neighbor. 
But equality of results is impossible between con- 
testants of unequal aptitude when all are given 
equality of opportunity. 

The kind of "democracy" which the socialist 
and the anarchist demand, confessedly hobbles the 
fleet, hamstrings the athletic and removes all in- 
centive to efficiency. The keystone of representa- 
tive government is rewards according to merit, 
and the buttresses that support the arch are free- 
dom of action on the one side, and justice accord- 
ing to law on the other. 

f* Republics keep a one-price store. Whoever 
pays the price, gets the goods. Democracy, on 
the contrary, expects voluntary toil, popular sac- 

2 



18 Vanishing Landmarks 

rifices and then proposes to distribute the result- 
ant good either pro rata or indiscriminately. No 
one can read socialistic literature without recog- 
nizing that political, social, industrial and finan- 
cial democracy is the goal of its endeavor. When 
the supreme conflict comes between organized 
government, organized liberty, organized justice 
and bolshevism under whatsoever garb it may 
choose to masquerade, I do not intend anyone 
shall "shake his gory head" at me and say that I 
helped popularize their universal slogan and in- 
ternational shibboleth. Unless we speedily give 
heed we shall be fighting to make America unsafe 
for democracy. Then we may have difficulty in 
explaining that we have meant all these years a 
very different thing than our language has ex- 
pressed. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 

The republican character of the constitutional 
convention, the qualifications of the delegates, and 
the extent to which they trusted to the wisdom of 
the people. 

The Constitutional Convention was a republi- 
can body, and not a mass meeting. George Wash- 
ington presided. He was a delegate from Vir- 
ginia. James Madison was another representa- 
tive from the same state, and he wrote the greater 
part of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson was 
in France, and had nothing whatever to do with 
drafting the great document, or in securing its 
adoption. Benjamin Franklin was a delegate 
from Pennsylvania. Roger Sherman was a rep- 
resentative of Connecticut. New York sent no 
delegate, but Alexander Hamilton, who with 
George Washington had early recognized that 
the League of Nations, or League of Sovereign 
States, which means the same, and which the old 
Articles of Confederation created, was proving 
an utter failure in practice, and had, therefore, 

19 



20 Vanishing Landmarks 

urged from the beginning "a more perfect 
union,' ' attended and he was seated as a delegate 
from New York. His matchless vision led him 
to seek the incorporation of additional safeguards 
against bolshevism, as it is now called, and though 
his advice was not heeded it was Hamilton, more 
than any other man, with John Jay and James 
Madison his able supporters, who secured the rati- 
fication of the Constitution as drafted. 

These, and the other delegates, representing 
the people of the several states, after much delib- 
eration formulated the historic document begin- 
ning, "We the people." It provides among other 
things that its ratification by delegated conven- 
tions in nine of the thirteen states shall make it 
binding upon the states so ratifying the same. It 
also provides that it can be amended in a similar 
delegated convention called at the request of 
chosen representatives in the legislatures of two- 
thirds of all the states, or by joint resolutions 
passed by two-thirds of the representatives of the 
people, in Congress assembled, when ratified by 
representatives of the people in three-fourths of 
the states, in their respective legislatures assem- 
bled. 

Those who talk about "taking the government 
back to the people" would do well to remember 
that the American people have never voted upon 



The Constitutional Convention 21 

any provision of the National Constitution, and 
there is no way provided by which they can, in any 
direct way, express their approval or disapproval. 
I repeat, the Fathers created a republic, and not 
a democracy. Washington speaks of "the dele- 
gated will of the nation" — never of the popular 
wish of the people. 

THE FATHERS CONSULTED HISTORY 

The members of the Constitutional Convention 
were worthy of their seats. They were men of 
both learning and experience. They had read 
history. They knew that many attempts at rep- 
resentative government had been made and that 
all had failed. They also knew the path all these 
republics had taken on their way to oblivion. 
They were fully alive to the fact that the first 
step had always been from representative govern- 
ment to direct government; from direct govern- 
ment to chaos, from chaos to the man on horse- 
back — the dictator ; thence to monarchy. The dis- 
cussion in the convention makes it abundantly 
clear that the Fathers sought to save America 
from the monarch, and to protect her from the 
mass. They chose the middle ground between 
two extremes, both fraught with danger. 

They even went so far as to guarantee that no 
state should be cursed with a democratic form of 






22 Vanishing Landmarks 

government, or a monarchial form of government 
or any other kindred system. The provision 
is in this language: "The United States shall 
guarantee to every state in this Union a republi- 
can form of government." That excludes every 
other form. 

CONFIDENCE IN THE PEOPLE JUSTIFIED 

The members of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, having been selected because of their apti- 
tude for public matters, their knowledge of pub- 
lic questions and their experience in public affairs, 
very naturally had confidence that men of like 
caliber and character would always be selected 
for important representative positions. They be- 
lieved the people would choose legislators, execu- 
tives and judges of aptitude, at least, and would 
retain them in office until they attained efficiency 
through experience. 

Presumably these delegates anticipated that 
men would be born with no aptitude for public 
positions, but they confidently believed even these 
would be able to select men of aptitude. They 
may have realized that some men would be unfit 
for Congress, who, nevertheless, would be compe- 
tent to select able congressmen. For these, as 
well as for other reasons, they provided no way 
by which those whom no one would think of send- 



The Constitutional Convention 23 

ing to Congress, and who naturally give no atten- 
tion to public affairs, could instruct their con- 
gressmen, who alone must bear the responsibility 
of legislation. Had such a thing as legislating 
by referendum been thought of at that time, the 
Fathers certainly would have expressly prohib- 
ited it. Legislation by representatives was con- 
sidered and express and detailed provision there- 
for was made. 

The preceding differentiation between repub- 
lic and democracy has no reference, of course, to 
political parties. Long before the republican 
party, as now constituted, had an existence, dem- 
ocratic orators grew eloquent over "republican in- 
stitutions," meaning thereby representative insti- 
tutions. 

Every protestant church in America is a re- 
public. Its affairs are managed by representa- 
tives — by boards. Otherwise there would be no 
churches. Every bank and every corporation is 
a republic, managed by boards and officers se- 
lected by stockholders. The United States Steel 
Corporation, for instance, is analogous to a repub- 
lic, the stockholders being the electors, but if the 
stockholders were to take charge of that corpora- 
tion, and direct its management by initiative or 
referendum, it would be in the hands of a re- 
ceiver within ninety days. 



24 Vanishing Landmarks 

The United States of America is a great Cor- 
poration, in which the Stockholder is the Elector. 
Stockholders of financial and industrial corpora- 
tions desire dividends, which are paid in cash. Not 
desiring office, the stockholders are satisfied to 
have the corporation managed by representatives 
of aptitude and experience. The dividends paid 
by political corporations like the United States 
and the several states are "liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness," "equality before the law," an army 
and navy for national defense, and courts of jus- 
tice for the enforcement of rights and the redress 
of wrongs. But stockholders in political corpora- 
tions are not always satisfied with these returns. 
Some prefer office to dividends payable only in 
blessings. 

In banks and other business corporations, 
stockholders are apt to insist that representatives 
and officers who show aptitude and efficiency 
shall be continued in office so long as dividends 
are satisfactory. In political corporations the 
people have recently been pursuing a very differ- 
ent course. They have been changing their repre- 
sentatives so frequently that efficiency, which re- 
sults only from experience, is impossible. 

While stockholders of a corporation would 
certainly wreck the institution if they attempted 
to manage its affairs directly or by referendum, 



The Constitutional Convention 25 

it is very appropriate for stockholders, acting 
on the recommendation of their representatives 
— the board of directors — to determine an im- 
portant measure like an issue of bonds, or 
whether the scope and purpose of the concern 
shall be enlarged or its capital increased. Anal- 
ogous to this is the determination of govern- 
mental policies at regular elections where the 
people choose between the programs of different 
political parties as set forth in their platforms. 
Thus the people sometimes ratify the policy of 
protection, and sometimes the policy of free 
trade, demonstrating that they do not always act 
wisely by frequently reversing themselves. 

Political parties usually omit from their plat- 
forms the details of legislation. The only ex- 
ception that occurs to me was when every detail 
of a financial policy was incorporated in the 
platform submitted for ratification. The coin- 
age was to be "free," it was to be "unlimited," 
and at the "ratio of 16 to 1." If the people 
had approved this at the polls their representa- 
tives would have had no discretion. There 
would have been no room for compromise. While 
the people are presumably competent to choose 
between policies recommended in the platforms 
of political parties, it is a far stretch of the 
imagination to suppose that the average citizen 



26 Vanishing Landmarks 

is better prepared to determine the details of a 
policy than the man he selects to represent him 
in the halls of Congress. The congressman who 
concedes that his average constituent is better 
prepared to pass upon a proposition than he is 
necessarily admits in the same breath that his 
district committed a serious blunder in sending 
him. It ought to have selected a man at least 
of average intelligence. 

The fact that neither stockholders en masse, 
nor employees en masse are able to manage a busi- 
ness enterprise does not imply that the principle 
of a republic may not be advantageously applied 
to industrial concerns. This question is again 
referred to in Chapter xxx, and the possible safe, 
middle course between the industrial autocracy 
demanded by capital, and the industrial democ- 
racy demanded by labor, is suggested and briefly 
discussed. 



CHAPTER III 

STATESMEN MUST FIRST BE BORN AND THEN MADE 

Some fundamental qualifications for statesman- 
ship. Integrity and wisdom compared. 

How are lawyers obtained? Admission to the 
bar does not always produce even an attorney. 
And there is a very marked difference between 
an attorney and a lawyer. But when a young 
man is admitted to the bar who has aptitude for 
the law, without which no man can be a lawyer, 
industry in the law, without which no man ever 
was a lawyer, then with some years of appropri- 
ate environment — the court room and the law 
library — a lawyer will be produced into whose 
hands you may safely commit your case. 

How are law makers obtained? Many seem 
to think it only necessary to deliver a certificate 
of election, and, behold, a constructive statesman, 
of either gender. I would like to ask whether, in 
your judgment, it requires any less aptitude, any 
less industry, or a less period of appropriate en- 
vironment to produce a constructive law maker, 
than to develop a safe law practitioner. 

27 



28 Vanishing Landmarks 

I will carry the illustration one step further. 
Do you realize that it would be far safer to 
place the man of ordinary intelligence upon the 
bench, with authority to interpret and enforce the 
laws as he finds them written in the book, than to 
give him pen and ink and let him draft new laws ? 
We all recognize that it requires a man of legal 
aptitude and experience to interpret laws, but 
some seem to assume neither aptitude nor experi- 
ence is necessary in a law-maker. If legislators 
in state and nation are to be abjectly obedient to 
the wish of their constituents, what use can they 
make of knowledge and judgment? They will 
prove embarrassments, will they not? 

To interpret the laws requires aptitude im- 
proved by experience ; it demands special knowl- 
edge, both of the general law and of the particu- 
lar case under discussion. It takes a specialist. 

I would rather have the ordinary man stand 
over my dentist and tell him how to crown my 
tooth than to have him stand over my congress- 
man and tell him how to vote. He knows, in a 
general way, how a tooth should be crowned, and 
further than that I refuse to carry the illustration. 
Then, I can stand a bad tooth better than I can 
a bad law. No man ever lost his job because of a 
bad tooth. But millions have stood in the bread 
line, and other millions will suffer in like manner 



Statesmen Must First Be Born 29 

because of unfortunate and ill-considered legis- 
lation. 

INTEGRITY VERSUS WISDOM 

We all demand integrity in office, but integrity 
is the most common attribute of man. I can go 
on the street and buy integrity for a dollar a da}^ ? 
if it does not require any work ; but aptitude, ex- 
perience and wisdom are high-priced. If I had to 
choose between men of probity but wanting in 
aptitude and experience, and men of aptitude and 
experience known to be dishonest, I should un- 
hesitatingly choose the crook rather than the fool ; 
either for bank president or congressman. Banks 
seldom fail because of dishonesty. Banks fail be- 
cause of bad management. The thief may steal a 
little of the cream but the careless and the inex- 
perienced spill the milk. 

Thus far in our history no man has ever walked 
the street in vain for work, no man has gone home 
to find his wife in rags and his children crying for 
bread, because of dishonesty in public office. The 
United States can stand extravagance, it can 
stand graft, it has stood and is standing the most 
reckless abandon in all its financial expenditures. 
The worst this nation has yet encountered — and 
may the good Lord save us from anything more 
dreadful — is incompetency in the halls of legis- 



30 Vanishing Landmarks 

lation. Extravagance and graft stalk forth at 
noonday when incompetency occupies the seats 
intended for statesmen. 

None but bolsheviki would consider subjecting 
an army to democratic command. The person- 
nel of an army may possess equal patriotism with- 
out possessing equal aptitude for war. Recent 
experiences have only emphasized what was said 
more than a thousand years ago: "An army of 
asses commanded by a lion will overthrow an 
army of lions commanded by an ass." 

Strange, is it not, that every one should recog- 
nize this principle when applied to an army and 
to business, and an overwhelming majority over- 
look it when applied to governmental matters? 



CHAPTER IV 

EXPECTATIONS REALIZED 

The capacity of the people to select representa- 
tives wiser than their constituents illustrated by 
historic facts. 

America has passed through several crises, and 
each time has been saved because the people's rep- 
resentatives were wiser than the people. In this 
respect, the expectation of the Fathers has been 
realized. I will mention but three instances. 

During the Civil War the government resorted 
to the issuance of paper currency, commonly 
called greenbacks. While conservative people 
assumed that these greenbacks would be redeemed 
whenever the government was able, nevertheless, 
there being no express provision for their redemp- 
tion, they went to depreciation, and passed from 
hand to hand far below par. All this resulted in 
inflation which inevitably led to a period of 
depression. 

In this connection it is well to remember that 
whenever we have had a period of depression, and 
whenever we shall have such a period, there 

31 



32 Vanishing Landmarks 

always has been and ever will be a group of peo- 
ple with a panacea for our ills. During the period 
referred to, a political party, calling itself the 
"Greenback Party," came into existence and ad- 
vocated the issuance of an indefinite volume of 
irredeemable paper currency which, in their ig- 
norance, they called "money/' The specious 
argument was to the effect that when "money" 
can be made on a printing press, it is silly to have 
less than enough. They expressly advocated issu- 
ing all the currency the people could use without 
making any provision for its retirement. When- 
ever the people wanted more, they proposed to 
print more. 

Fully seventy-five percent of the American 
people, without regard to political affiliation, 
favored some phase or degree of "greenbackism." 
While much of this sentiment failed of crystalliza- 
tion, quite a number of congressmen were elected 
on that issue. If the direct primary law, with 
which most of the states are now cursed, had been 
in force at that time, it is probable that no man 
could have been nominated for Congress, by any 
party, who was not avowedly in favor of inflation 
by some method. But the people were saved 
from themselves exactly as the Fathers had an- 
ticipated. The representatives of the people, 
being wiser than the people, refused the people 



Expectations Realized 33 

what most of them desired and gave them what 
they needed, resumption of specie payment. 

Again, in the '90's we had a period of depres- 
sion, and the panacea then recommended was the 
free and unlimited coinage of silver, at the ratio 
of 16 to 1 with gold. The difference between 
"greenbackism" and "free silverism" was simply 
one of degree. The greenbacker desired the gov- 
ernment to print the dollar mark on a piece of 
paper, thus producing currency one hundred per- 
cent flat, while the free silverite asked that the 
government stamp the dollar mark upon a piece 
of silver, thus producing currency fifty percent 
flat. 

Fully nine-tenths of the American people de- 
sired the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 
William McKinley, willing as he was to run for 
president on a gold standard platform in 1896, 
when in Congress had voted for a clean-cut free 
silver measure. The lower house of Congress 
actually passed a free silver bill. But, exactly 
as the Fathers expected, the people's representa- 
tives in the Senate, wiser than the people who had 
placed them there, refused the people what ninety 
percent of them wanted and gave them what one 
hundred percent needed — sound money. 

Outside of Russia, there is scarcely a man in all 
the world who would now recommend the issu- 



34) Vanishing' Landmarks 

ance of irredeemable paper currency, what three- 
fourths of the American people wanted in the 
'70's; and there is not more than one man in all 
the world who would now recommend the free 
coinage of silver, what four-fifths of the Ameri- 
can people wanted in the '90's. 

The direct primary in 1896 would have nomi- 
nated a free silver republican, and a free silver 
democrat in each and every congressional district 
of the United States, and we would have had a 
solid free silver House. If the United States 
senators had been then elected by the people, pre- 
ceded by a direct primary, the Senate of the 
United States would have been solidly for free sil- 
ver ; and we would have passed, as everyone now 
recognizes, to financial ruin. We were saved, be- 
cause the United States of America was a repub- 
lic and not a democracy — because, if you please, 
we had representative and not direct government. 

More recently, Germany and the Central Pow- 
ers made war upon the United States. This they 
continued for more than two years. Finally, the 
President, in his message of April 2, 1917, ad- 
vised Congress to "declare the course of the Im- 
perial German Government to be, in fact, nothing 
less than war against the country and the people 
of the United States." A resolution to that effect 
was thereupon passed on April 6, 1917. 



Expectations Realized 35 

If the proposition of going to war with Ger- 
many had been submitted to a direct vote of the 
American people, under a referendum, they 
would have voted against it, two to one, and in 
many localities and cities, four to one. Again 
we were saved, because we had a republican and 
not a democratic form of government. We were 
saved because our representatives proved wiser 
than their constituents. 



CHAPTER V 

INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPRESENTATIVE 

The effect of popular instructions to representa- 
tives discussed and illustrated. 

The Fathers never intended that the people 
should legislate, interpret the laws or administer 
justice. They did provide, however, that the 
people should choose their legislators, their 
judges and their executives. They sought also to 
render impossible any interference with the inde- 
pendence of these representatives. Judges are 
not expected to inquire of bystanders how ques- 
tions of law shall be decided, or what decrees shall 
be rendered, or what punishments imposed. 

The Fathers did not anticipate that executives 
would hold their ears so close to the ground as to 
become nests for crickets. I do not mean to be 
understood, however, as intimating that the buzz- 
ing of insects has never been mistaken for the 
voice of the people. Members of the House and 
the Senate were not supposed to conform to Doo- 
ley's definition of a statesman: "One who watches 

36 



Independence of the Representative 37 

the procession until he discovers in which direc- 
tion it is moving and then steals the stick from 
the drum major." The Fathers expected officials 
to be as independent of the voters who select them 
as officers of a corporation are independent of 
stockholders. 

In proof that Washington did not consider 
the delegates to the Constitutional Convention 
bound to follow the wishes of the people they 
represented I cite what Gouverneur Morris 
quotes him as saying: "It is too probable that 
no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps 
another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. 
If to please the people we offer what we our- 
selves disapprove, how can we afterward defend 
our work? Let us raise a standard to which 
the wise and the honest can repair; the event 
is in the hand of God." 

Suppose the state should engage in banking. 
A doorkeeper, a bookkeeper and a president 
would be necessary. But if the president sought 
instruction from the street, the bank would be 
short-lived. If a body of stockholders were to 
enter a bank, as now operated, and demand a loan 
without security, either for themselves or for some 
needy fellow creature, the president would prob- 
ably say, "You can have another president any 
day you please, but while I am president, you will 



38 Vanishing Landmarks 

furnish collateral." Otherwise, there would be 
no bank. 

L. Q. C. Lamar used to say to his constituents: 
"If you desire me to represent you in Congress, I 
will do so." Then, with becoming dignity and in 
absolute harmony with the principles of the re- 
public, as established by the Fathers, he would 
add, "But do not, for a moment, suppose you can 
stand between the plow handles during the day 
and tell me how to vote." Evidently Mr. Lamar 
expected to study public questions and to be bet- 
ter informed than his average constituent. 

Later, the legislature, recognizing his ability, 
sent him to the United States Senate. Here he 
opposed greenback legislation which was favor- 
ably considered by the people of Mississippi. 
Thereupon the legislature passed a resolution de- 
manding either that he vote in harmony with the 
sentiment of his state, or resign. He refused to 
do either, but continued to speak, and to vote 
his convictions based on knowledge. Before his 
term expired, the wisdom of his course was recog- 
nized and he was re-elected to the Senate by the 
very men who had sought to direct his action in 
a matter wherein they had no jurisdiction and he 
had supreme responsibility, and concerning which 
they knew nothing, while he knew much. 

Following the Civil War impeachment pro- 



Independence of the Representative 39 

ceedings were instituted against Andrew John- 
son. Because of the known prejudices of the peo- 
ple of Iowa, Senator Grimes of that state was ex- 
pected to vote "guilty." He voted "not guilty," 
and his colleague asked him, "Do you think you 
are expressing the sentiment of the people of 
Iowa?" The grand old Roman replied: "I have 
not inquired concerning the sentiment of the peo- 
ple of Iowa. I vote my convictions." That would 
be political suicide today. 

A few years ago proceedings to expel a certain 
senator were pending and several of his associates, 
after hearing the evidence submitted to them in 
their judicial capacity, expressed the conviction 
that the accused was innocent, but, because of the 
prejudices of their states, they would have to vote 
for expulsion. Senator Depew told me of a mem- 
ber who actually cried as he contemplated voting 
to expel a man whom he believed to be innocent. 

I would like to ask how long you think the 
United States of America can maintain her proud 
position among the nations of the world, if oath- 
bound representatives of the people accept pop- 
ular sentiment as the guide of their official con- 
duct. 

At the unveiling of the monument to Elijah 
Love joy, a letter was read from Wendel Phillips 
containing this sentence: "How cautiously most 



40 Vanishing Landmarks 

slip into oblivion and are forgotten, while here 
and there a man forgets himself into immortal- 
ity." In these most trying times our greatest 
need is men in public life whose ears are always 
open to counsel but ever closed to clamor — who 
will approach pending problems that threaten our 
very existence, with no other care but their coun- 
try's weal. The corner stone of freedom, as laid 
by the Fathers, is the absolute independence of 
the representative, coupled with the unimpeded 
right of the people to choose again at brief but 
appropriate intervals. 

HOW WOULD YOU BUILD A SUBMARINE? 

Suppose the government should delegate to 
some congressional district the responsibility of 
building a submarine. Would anyone think of 
undertaking the task except on the principle of 
a republic? You would select some man of me- 
chanical aptitude, plus mechanical experience, 
and you would hold him responsible for the result. 
Would you require your representative when se- 
lected to listen to popular sentiment, as expressed 
on the street corners or in the press ? Would you 
have him submit his plans and blue prints to the 
"people," by referendum or otherwise? 

We all admit that some men know more about 
farming than others, some more about commerce 



Independence of the Representative 41 

than others, some more about science than others, 
but the sentiment is alarmingly general that in the 
realm of statecraft — the most complex subject 
ever approached — one man is just as wise as 
another. At Detroit, Michigan, during the cam- 
paign of 1916, Woodrow Wilson used this lan- 
guage: "So I say the suspicion is beginning to 
dawn in many quarters, that the average man 
knows the business necessities of the country just 
as well as the extraordinary man." 

I do not wish to question Mr. Wilson's sin- 
cerity, though I am not unmindful of the fact that 
he spent the greater part of his active life in col- 
lege work trying to produce "extraordinary 
men," and in that field he was quite successful. 
Taking issue with his position, but not with his 
sincerity, I am going to insult popular sentiment 
and say that I believe there are many men compe- 
tent to select a competent constructor of a subma- 
rine, who are not competent to construct a sub- 
marine, or competent to instruct a constructor of 
a submarine. 

But, suppose the people should build such a 
craft on the principle of a democracy, each one 
doing what seemed to him wise, without dishon- 
esty or graft. I have no question but that a sub- 
marine would be produced that would "sub," and 
I am equally certain that it would stay "subbed." 



42 Vanishing Landmarks 

I want to ask whether, in your opinion, the ship 
of state — the government of the United States — 
is any less complicated, any less complex or any 
less likely to "sub" and stay "subbed," exactly as 
each and every republic for twenty-five hundred 
years did "sub" — if placed in the hands of an in- 
experienced mass of experimenters in statecraft. 

Think this out for yourself. This is your gov- 
ernment quite as much as mine, and it will be your 
government long after the conservative "Old 
Guard" have left the field of human activities. 



CHAPTER VI 

TKEND OF THE TIMES 

A consideration of the constitutional guarantee 
that each state shall have a republican form of 
government, and the warning of Washington 
against making changes in the constitution. 

Both the trend of thought and the current of 
events are away from representative government 
and toward direct government. 

Legislating by initiative or by referendum, the 
recall of judges, and especially the recall of judi- 
cial decisions, come dangerously near constituting 
a democratic form of government, against which 
the Constitution of the United States guarantees. 
Its language you remember : "The United States 
shall guarantee to every state in this Union a 
republican form of government." 

Chief Justice Taney, interpreting this section, 
said: "It rests with Congress to decide what 
government is the established one in a state, for, 
as the United States guarantees to each state a 
republican form of government, Congress must 
necessarily decide what government is established 

43 



44 Vanishing Landmarks 

in the state before it can determine whether it is 
republican or not." 1 

Chief Justice Waite used the following lan- 
guage, the vital sentence of which I have itali- 
cized: "All the states had governments when the 
Constitution was adopted. In all, the people par- 
ticipated, to some extent, through their represen- 
tatives selected in the manner specially provided. 
These governments the Constitution did not 
change. They were accepted precisely as they 
were and it is therefore to be presumed that they 
were such as it is the duty of the states to provide. 
Thus, we have unmistakable evidence of what was 
republican in form within the meaning of that 
term as employed in the Constitution." 2 

It is well to note that this participation in their 
government, which the learned Chief Justice men- 
tions, was "through their representatives/' and in 
no other way. 

More than one state has been required to 
change its constitution before admission into the 
Union. Congress refused to admit Arizona un- 
der a constitution providing for the recall of 
judges and judicial decisions. It smacked too 
strongly of direct government. After her admis- 

a Luther vs. Borden, 7 Howard 1. 
2 Minar vs. Happersatt, 21 Wall 112. 



Trend of the Times 45 

sion, however, she amended her constitution and 
inserted the socialistic — the "democratic" — provi- 
sions, the elimination of which Congress had made 
a condition precedent to admission. 

In his work, "The State," Woodrow Wilson 
calls attention to the fact that constitution-mak- 
ing is fast becoming "a cumbrous mode of legis- 
lation." The record in many states justifies this 
comment. 

At the election of 1918, in the state of Califor- 
nia there were submitted through referendum 
nineteen proposed amendments to its constitution, 
no one of which legitimately belongs in a constitu- 
tion. They were simply legislative acts sought to 
be inserted in the organic law, or state charter, 
for the sole purpose of rendering them more diffi- 
cult of repeal when proved bad. The "people" 
had so little confidence in themselves that they 
deemed it imprudent to trust to their wisdom 
whether a law should be continued when found 
beneficial or repealed when its effects were evil, 
and hence sought to tie their own hands by placing 
the act in the constitution instead of in the revised 
statutes. 

George Washington, with prophetic vision, 
foresaw and in his immortal Farewell Address 
warned against this tendency towards evolution- 
ary revolution and employed this language, the 



46 Vanishing Landmarks 

last sentence of which I feel certain he would 
today italicize: 

"Towards the preservation of your government 
and the permanency of your present happy state, 
it is requisite not only that you speedily discoun- 
tenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged 
authority, but also that you resist with care the 
spirit of innovation upon its principles, however 
specious the pretext. One method of assault may 
be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alter- 
ations which will impair the energy of the system 
and thus to undermine what cannot be directly 
overthrown" 

This trend towards a democratic form of gov- 
ernment, or direct government, finds fitting illus- 
tration in the fact that if you were to locate a 
homestead in any one of several states, prove up 
and secure your patent, and someone should con- 
test your title, and the court should find the land 
belonged to you, and should render decision ac- 
cordingly, the people might reverse this decree 
and give the land to the contestant. It is not a 
question whether they are likely to do such a 
thing. The fact that the people in several states 
have deliberately provided the machinery by 
which they can thus defeat justice, constitutes a 
perpetual menace that should adversely affect the 
market value of all real estate in those states. 



Trend of the Times 47 

When title to property is made to rest upon the 
sentimental whim of the masses, as distin- 
guished from a decree of court, liberty itself is 
rendered unstable and organized government is 
abandoned and socialism is substituted. 



CHAPTER VII 

CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY 

The necessity for organized government and 
organized justice as a guarantee of constitutional 
liberty is sought to be shown. Plato's dream, 
Macaulay's dire prediction and a threat. 

A democratic form of government precludes 
the possibility of constitutional liberty. Consti- 
tutional liberty does exist in what Professor 
Giddings calls a "democratic state," but cannot 
in what the same author calls a "democratic 
form of government." His admittedly correct 
differentiation cannot be too often repeated. 

"A democratic state," says this high authority, 
"is popular sovereignty," while "a democratic 
form of government is the actual decision of every 
question of legal and executive detail by a direct 
popular vote." 

I grant the formality of a constitution may 
exist under a democratic form of government, but 
where all functions of government are exercised 
directly by the people, necessarily there can be no 
tribunal to enforce the provisions of a constitu- 
tion. Let me illustrate. 

48 



Constitutional Liberty 49 

Suppose, if you will, that an uninhabited island 
has been discovered, and a government is about 
to be formulated preliminary to its occupation. 
Undoubtedly, we would agree that the sover- 
eignty of the island should be vested in the peo- 
ple. This, according to Professor Giddings, 
would make it a "democratic state." The next 
question would be whether this sovereignty would 
be exercised directly or through representatives. 
Shall it be a democratic form of government, or 
a republican form of government ? 

Someone would propose that a majority should 
rule. If I were present, I would promptly sug- 
gest that the rights of majorities always have 
been, and always will be, secure. Minorities, not 
majorities, need protection. I would ask what 
protection is to be given me, or anyone who may 
prove an undesirable citizen. Will we be thrown 
into jail and kept there indefinitely, without trial 
and without knowing the cause of our incarcera- 
tion? Such wrongs were common for centuries 
and are perpetrated by bolshevists, and defended 
by socialists today. Very likely the assembly 
would then promise a speedy trial, with right to 
summon witnesses, and to be confronted by one's 
accusers, and other safeguards of liberty such as 
are now guaranteed in the Constitution of the 
United States, and that of every state. 

4 



50 Vanishing Landmarks 

But this would not satisfy me. I would ask 
"How do I know that this promise will be kept?" 
Then, doubtless, the right to a writ of habeas 
corpus would be promised. And this would not 
satisfy me. I would ask: "By whom will it be 
issued, and by whom enforced?" Before we were 
through, it is quite probable we would create a 
tribunal, clothe it with greatest dignity, segregate 
it from the affairs of business and safeguard it 
against political influence, and for want of a bet- 
ter name, we would call it "The Supreme Court 
of the Island." This court would be clothed with 
authority to grant and enforce not only writs of 
habeas corpus but any and all other orders and 
decrees and judgments necessary to protect the 
minority, even though a minority of one, in his 
every constitutional right. (See note, p. 56,) 

TREASON AS AN ILLUSTRATION 

Treason is the only crime defined in the Con- 
stitution. Prior to the year 1352 there was great 
uncertainty in England as to what constituted 
treason, and Parliament, for the purpose of re- 
straining the power of the Crown to oppress the 
subject by arbitrary construction, passed, in that 
year, what is commonly known as the "Statute of 
Treason." All acts that might be construed trea- 
sonable were classified under seven branches. The 



Constitutional Liberty 51 

framers of the Constitution, desiring to protect 
the minority, chose only one of the seven and 
placed a perpetual bar against any other act being 
made treason, and further safeguarded the 
minority by defining the only basis of convic- 
tion. Section 3, Article III, is as follows: 

"Treason against the United States shall con- 
sist only in levying war against them, or in adher- 
ing to their enemies, giving them aid and com- 
fort. No person shall be convicted of treason 
unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the 
same overt act, or on confession in open court." 

Now, suppose confiscationists, whether styling 
themselves socialists, bolsheviki, single-taxers, or 
non-partisan leaguers, shall get control and, by 
referendum, extend the scope of treason to in- 
clude such offenses as claiming title to real estate, 
which all the breed insist rightfully belongs to the 
people en masse. Far less degrees of what they 
consider "crime" were made punishable by death 
when democracy went mad in France. Of what 
use would the express provisions of the Constitu- 
tion be if the power to recall decisions, as well as 
the judges who render them, is to be exercised by 
the mass? 

Leave it to the people to afford protection from 
the people and you might just as well abolish all 
constitutional guarantees. Were the people en 



52 



Vanishing Landmarks 



masse to make the laws, en masse to interpret the 
laws, and en masse to enforce the laws, the indi- 
vidual would have no rights that the people en 
masse would be bound to respect. 



SOVIET RUSSIA AND AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

In a widely circulated pamphlet, "A Voice Out 
of Russia," the author speaks of "a certain divine 
sense in which the Russian revolution parallels 
the revolt of the thirteen American colonies, and 
in which the proletariat of Russia is striving to 
accomplish for his world much the same ideals 
which our forefathers laid down for theirs. 
There was," he says, "more of the spirit of the 
people, more of faith and dependence in the pro- 
letariat, in American revolutionary doctrines, 
than we seem disposed to admit today ; and by the 
same token, it is because we have lost our sense 
of fundamental democracy that we do not care to 
admit it." 

"Fundamental democracy" is the correct term. 
But we have not lost it. We are simply in danger 
of getting it. It is exactly what the Fathers 
sought to eliminate and prevent. 

On the next page of the pamphlet, the author 
says : "The writers of the American Constitution 
certainly strove to do away with the artificial com- 
plexities of politics, and to bring every function 



Constitutional Liberty 53 

of government within the grasp and comprehen- 
sion of the whole electorate." 

I submit that that is exactly what the framers 
of the Constitution did not seek to do. They cre- 
ated representative government and sought to 
guard against direct government. The author 
quoted, and every other teacher of revolution, 
either by peaceful or violent means, is seeking to 
establish direct government. When they use the 
word "democracy," they use it in its dictionary 
sense. They use it as Rousseau, Robespierre, 
Lenine, Trotsky and a very large number of 
others, including some widely known Americans, 
use it. Why do liberty-loving Americans seek 
to divorce the word "democracy" from its original 
meaning and popularize the greatest enemy lib- 
erty has ever known ? 

PLATO J S DREAM 

One of the best and most conservative news- 
papers in the United States printed late in 1918 
a carefully written editorial under the above title, 
from which I quote a few disconnected sentences, 
italicizing the most important: 

"Twenty-five hundred years ago in Athens, 
Plato, the philosopher, who is called the 'father 
of idealists,' framed the structure of an ideal gov- 
ernment among men, in the form of a republic. 



54 Vanishing Landmarks 

. . . . When the dust of Plato was gathered 
into a Grecian urn, his dream did not die. The 
generations harbored and treasured it. Time 
after time, and in place after place, republics were 
formed. Men gave their blood and their lives to 
realize the dream of Plato. But always might 
prevailed over them. Only America endured to 
make the dream come true. In these times there 
are numerous republics but there is not one among 
them that does not owe its existence to the exam- 
ple and the influence of the United States. Were 
our republic to crumble, every other on earth 

would crumble with it Since the 

adoption of the Constitution in 1789, one hundred 
and thirty years have passed and during that time 
America has met and overcome every trial to 
which the ideal republic could possibly be sub- 
jected. It has answered every argument against 
a republican form of government advanced by the 
most stubborn objectors." 

The foregoing is historically correct except the 
last two sentences. America has stood every test 
except that which ruined every other republic. It 
has not yet encountered direct government, to- 
wards which we seem radically tending. It has 
not withstood what Lord Macauley, a century 
ago, predicted would prove our overthrow. He 
declared the republic was "all sail and no ballast." 



Constitutional Liberty 55 

He predicted great speed for a period; but he 
warned against the day when those who did not 
have breakfast and did not expect dinner would 
elect our congress and our president. The 
demagogue would be abroad in the land and he 
would say: ''Why do these have and you suffer?" 

"Your republic will be pillaged and ravaged in 
the 2Cth century, just as the Roman Empire was 
by the barbarians of the fifth century, with this 
difference, that the devastators of the Roman 
Empire, the Huns and Vandals, came from 
abroad, while your barbarians will be the people 
of your own country, and the product of your own 
institutions." 

If "Coxie's army" had been led by Eugene 
Debs, or any one of more than a score whose 
names are revered by many, instead of by a 
patriotic American, every mile of the road over 
which it traveled would have reeked with human 
gore. Had it resorted to bloodshed at that time, 
however, it would not have proceeded far. But 
socialism has made great progress since 1895. 

Speaking before a Senate committee early in 
January of this year, the president of the Amer- 
ican Federation of Labor is reported to have said : 
"The people will not countenance industrial stag- 
nation after the war. There can be no repetition 
in the United States of the conditions that pre- 



56 Vanishing Landmarks 

vailed from 1893 to 1896 when men and women 
were hungry for the want of employment.' ' 

The same veiled threat has been uttered repeat- 
edly by men high in official position. 

Are we face to face with a condition and not 
a theory? Will laborers revolt if they fail to se- 
cure employment, or when compelled to accept a 
lesser wage ? Will farmers turn anarchist if they 
can find no market for their crops, or when com- 
pelled to accept a lesser price? Will bankers 
become bomb throwers if unloanable funds accu- 
mulate? No, America has not withstood every 
trial to which she can possibly be subjected. The 
supreme menace stands today with gnashing 
teeth, glaring into our faces. 

Note to Second Edition — So much popular objection is made 
to the holdings of Federal and State courts that certain statutes 
are "unconstitutional," I deem it important to emphasize the 
thought expressed on page 50. Unless some tribunal has authority 
to determine when the Constitution has been transgressed, a 
constitution is of no use whatever. We might as well entrust 
ourselves to the whim of the people in the first instance as to 
permit the people to legislate our rights away. Why the formality 
of legislation if there is to be no restriction upon the sudden 
impulse of legislators? The surest protection we now have 
against the threatening wave of radicalism is the restraining hand 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. 



CHAPTER VIII 

WHAT IS A CONSTITUTION ? 

The nature of the constitution and the depend- 
ence of the minority thereon and hence the neces- 
sity for an independent judiciary discussed and 
illustrated. 

A constitution is little less than a firm and 
binding contract between the majority and the 
minority, entered into for the sole protection of 
the minority, with regularly constituted courts to 
enforce its provisions. 

The Supreme Court of the United States, from 
which every root of the Judiciary Department — 
one of the three coordinate branches of govern- 
ment — derives its vitality, is our only continuing 
and unchanging bulwark of liberty. 

The executive branch, from President down 
through all the departments, State, Treasury, 
War and Navy, is liable to radical change on the 
fourth day of March every four years. Either 
house and both houses of Congress frequently 
change in partisan complexion at a single election. 
The Supreme Court, the members of which hold 

57 



58 Vanishing Landmarks 

by life tenure, remains, theoretically, at least, 
unchanged. 

Unless the people undermine their liberties by 
"effecting in the forms of the Constitution altera- 
tions which will impair the energy of the system," 
which Washington warned against, or unless some 
executive corrupts the personnel of the Supreme 
Court by filling vacancies with socialists, or other 
revolutionary elements, Anglican liberty, the 
hope of the world, is secured in America against 
everything except bolshevism. With respect to 
the courts, Washington's famous order is perti- 
nent: "Place none but Americans on guard 
tonight." 

WHO IS AN AMERICAN? 

Who is an American, worthy to be placed on 
guard tonight? Is he American born? He may 
be, and he may have been born beneath any flag 
and under any sky. An American is one who 
believes in and is ready to defend this republic. 
To be ready to defend our territory, or even our 
flag, is not enough. 

Though we continue our socialistic bent and 
either undermine or overthrow our form of gov- 
ernment through peaceful evolution or forceful 
revolution, with sword or by ballot, the land will 
remain. The rains will water it, the sun warm 



What Is a Constitution? 59 

it, human life will exist, the Stars and Stripes 
will still float, but, except from the map, America 
will be gone forever. 

America is more than fertile fields, more than 
bursting banks, more than waving flags. The 
America in which one must believe, and for which 
he must sacrifice, is constitutional liberty and 
justice according to law, guaranteed and admin- 
istered by three coordinate branches of govern- 
ment. Just in proportion as we weaken the 
energy of the system through changes in the 
Constitution — which Washington so earnestly 
warned against — we undermine what thus far no 
one has succeeded in overthrowing. 

I repeat, three coordinate branches of govern- 
ment with no subordinate branch! In the 
America which the world knows, and which we 
love, laws must be enacted by the legislative 
branch, and not by the executive or by the prole- 
tariat. Laws must be interpreted by an inde- 
pendent judiciary, fearless and unrecallable 
except by impeachment. And these laws, whose 
scope is limited by the Constitution, must be 
administered by the executive and not by the 
legislative branch. Congress has no more right 
to direct the manner of execution of its acts than 
the president has to direct or coerce the nature 
of its acts. Let each coordinate branch keep 



60 Vanishing Landmarks 

hands off the sacred prerogatives of the other. 
That's America! And the man who defends 
her traditions and her institutions, regardless of 
his nativity, is an American who can safely be 
placed on guard tonight. 

AN ACTUAL MENACE 

On February 3, 1919, an editorial writer who 
has testified that he has six million or more read- 
ers, quoted Samuel Gompers, president of the 
American Federation of Labor, as saying: 

"I mean that the people propose to control 
their government and do not intend any longer 
to have the governing power exercised by judges 
on the bench. " 

And the editor correctly adds: 

"This is as near to an American revolutionary 
statement as has ever come from a man as im- 
portant officially as Mr. Gompers." 

Thus the issue is sharply drawn. This organ- 
ization, if its president has been correctly quoted, 
intends to abolish one of our coordinate branches 
of government, to- wit, the courts. 

What have the courts done to justify such a 
radical change in our form of government? 
When the government was organized the Fathers 
thought wise to make express provision that no 
class should ever become the special favorite of 



What Is a Constitution? 61 

legislation. The Constitution forbids class legis- 
lation and the courts enforce it. Unless labor 
union people demand special exemptions from 
obligations to which all others are amenable, or 
special privileges denied to others, why do they 
officially make the revolutionary announcement 
that the courts are to be abolished? Yet this very 
thing has the approval of this most widely known 
and best-paid editorial writer in the world. 
Pressed in a corner, I presume both would claim 
that their only desire is to compel the courts 
promptly to observe popular sentiment instead of 
studying legal principles and, to that end, pro- 
pose to subject judges to some kind of recall. 
And they would doubtless justify all this by the 
hackneyed phrase, "the people can be trusted." 

Thus they follow Rousseau and Robespierre. 
The former declared, "The general will, the pub- 
lic will, is always right." The latter said, "The 
people is infallible." 

A case that well illustrates this "popular in- 
fallibility" as taught by Rousseau and Robes- 
pierre, as well as by their present day disciples, 
occurred in a certain county in Iowa, not fifty 
miles from my home. A person charged with 
second degree murder sought his constitutional 
right of a fair and impartial trial. He made ap- 
plication for a change of venue, alleging that his 



62 Vanishing Landmarks 

case had been prejudged and that because of 
the existing prejudice he could not obtain a fair 
trial within that county. Five citizens, the mini- 
mum requisite number, supported his motion by 
their affidavits. Promptly, two hundred most 
reputable citizens filed counter affidavits alleging 
that there was no prejudice whatever. The 
judge believed the five. It is probable that he 
discerned evidence of prejudice in the eagerness 
with which the two hundred sought to have the 
case tried in their midst. A change of venue was 
granted, and that night these two hundred 
liberty-loving citizens decided they would "no 
longer have the governing power exercised by 
judges on the bench," broke open the jail, hung 
the accused and would have done violence to the 
judge if he had not been spirited away. 

If you want the opposite view of "popular in- 
fallibility," so you may the better determine for 
yourself, listen to Colonel Henry Watterson, a 
democrat of the old school and an American 
always, in the Brooklyn Eagle of February 1, 
1919: 

"The people," says Colonel Watterson, "en 
masse constitute what we call the mob. Mobs 
have rarely been right — never, except when 
capably led. It was the mob of Jerusalem that 
did the unoffending Jesus of Nazareth to death. 



What Is a Constitution? 63 

It was the mob in Paris that made the Reign of 
Terror. From that day to this, mobs have seldom 
been tempted, even had a chance to go wrong, 
that they have not gone wrong. 'The people' is 
a fetish. It was the people misled, who precipi- 
tated the South into the madness of secession 
and the ruin of a hopelessly unequal war of sec- 
tions. It was the people, backing if not com- 
pelling, the Kaiser, who committed hari-kari for 
themselves and their empire in Germany. It is 
the people, leaderless, who are now making havoc 
in Russia. Throughout the length and breadth 
of Christendom in all lands and ages, the people, 
when turned loose, have raised every inch of hell 
to the square inch they were able to raise, often 
upon the slightest pretext, or no pretext at all." 

OFFICIAL TIMIDITY AND ITS EFFECTS 

In some, perhaps most of the states, candidates 
for either House of Congress, knowing in ad- 
vance that if, by investigation and by listening 
to arguments pro and con, they arrive at conclu- 
sions based on knowledge that differ from the 
impressions of their constituents based on preju- 
dice, they will never be returned, make more or 
less formal announcement that, if elected, they 
will study no question but, when ready to vote, 
will inquire of those who have had neither oppor- 



64 Vanishing Landmarks 

tunity nor desire to inform themselves, and vote 
as directed. We pay congressmen and senators 
of this type — just the same as statesmanlike 
representatives — seven thousand, five hundred 
dollars a year, and they vote as they are told to 
vote. If I am correctly informed, in some states 
men have been found who will vote as they are 
instructed for considerably less money even than 
that. 

While the bill was pending to declare war 
against Germany, I called upon a Congressman 
who, without question, is the ablest man from his 
state. He had written to lawyers, bankers, 
farmers and labor men in his district, asking how 
he should vote on that momentous question. He 
handed me a package of replies he had received. 
I returned them and asked: "Do you agree with 
the President that Germany is already making 
war upon the United States?" "Yes," he replied, 
"she has waged war against us for more than 
two years." "Do you think your constituents 
know better than you what should be done?" His 
up-to-date reply was: "My constituents know 
nothing whatever about it, but I want to be re- 
elected." 

But not every congressman is that subservient. 
A certain well-known representative of a 
strongly German district in Ohio explained his 



What Is a Constitution? 65 

support of the declaration of war in this lan- 
guage: 

"If I were to permit any solicitude for my 
political future to govern my action, I might 
hesitate, but, gentlemen of the House, the only 
interest to which I give heed tonight is the inter- 
est of the American people; the only future to 
which I look is the future of my country." 

A few years ago a bill was pending to revise 
the tariff and a member of Congress from a cer- 
tain industrial district arose and informed the 
House that he had written to several labor men 
in his district and asked them how he should vote 
and that he had received a telegram saying, 
"Vote for the bill." He obeyed. This member 
did not profess to vote his convictions. In fact, 
he did not claim to be troubled with convictions. 
And I submit that if a man is to vote the senti- 
ment of his district, rather than his judgment, 
it is foolish to waste the time of men of judgment 
by sending them to Congress. It would be more 
appropriate and in far better taste to send men 
who have nothing else to do. A thousand dol- 
lars a year ought to be enough for a man who 
bears no responsibility except to listen well, 
especially if he be of a caliber willing to act as a 
"rubber stamp" for the people at home. 

Right here I want to venture an opinion, ask- 



66 Vanishing Landmarks 

ing no one to agree with me: The gravest dan- 
ger that confronts the United States of America, 
or that has confronted her in the last decade, has 
not been the armed forces against which we sent 
our brave boys in khaki, but in the fact that there 
are hundreds of representatives, and thousands 
of ambitious politicians, who cannot be purchased 
with the wealth of Croesus, but who will vote for 
anything and everything if by so doing they can 
advance their political fortunes. 

Bolshevism would be crushed and the red flag 
of anarchy would be no longer flaunted in the 
face of Freedom, were it not for this timidity 
inspired by those who insist that their representa- 
tives shall have no discretion and no responsibility 
except as clerks for an irresponsible populace. 
This is the doctrine taught in Rousseau's "Social 
Contract, 5 ' which Robespierre read every day 
and which furnished the inspiration for the 
French Revolution. His scheme was "pure 
democracy, unchecked, unlimited and undeflled 
by political leadership or political organization." 

Marat declared: "In a well regulated gov- 
ernment the people as a body is the real sov- 
ereign; their deputies are appointed solely to 
execute their orders. What right has the clay 
to oppose the potter." Again, he says: "It is 
a sacred right of constituents to dismiss their 



What Is a Constitution? 67 

representatives at will." And again: "Reduce 
the number of deputies" (corresponding to our 
members of Congress) "to fifty; do not let them 
remain in office more than five or six weeks ; com- 
pel them to transact their business during that 
time in public." 

This spirit of "pure democracy" which Wash- 
ington, with prophetic eye, saw and warned 
against, wrought its natural and legitimate ruin 
in France, is responsible for conditions now exist- 
ing in Russia and affords the greatest menace 
to civilization that the world has ever seen. I do 
not consider Washington a pessimist when, near 
the close of his "Farewell Address" with heart 
full of apprehension, he uttered these words: 

"In offering to you, my countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I 
dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish; that they will 
control the usual current of the passions, or pre- 
vent our nation from running the course which 
hitherto has marked the destiny of nations." 

Someone has declared life to be "one succes- 
sion of choices." The choice presented today is: 
Heed the warnings and return to the teachings 
of Washington; or go with Rousseau and 
Robespierre and enter the port towards which 
we are unmistakably headed — the port where 



68 Vanishing Landmarks 

lie the rotting timbers of all previous republics. 
Representative government and direct govern- 
ment are inherently incompatible. They are 
absolutely antagonistic. 



PART SECOND 

DANGERS FROM CHANGES IN OUR PURPOSE OF 
GOVERNMENT 



CHAPTER IX 

PRELIMINARY 

The basis of human happiness must be under- 
stood before one can judge if the policy which our 
government has pursued is calculated to afford 
liberty in the pursuit of happiness — admittedly 
the most important of our inalienable rights — as 
well as to determine whether the same should be 
reversed. 

Preliminary to the discussion of the original 
design of government, and its gradual reversal 
of purpose, I want to present as briefly as I may> 
some philosophies of life. This I deem im- 
portant, for only as we understand the basis of 
human happiness can we appreciate the wisdom 
of the course which the United States pursued for 
more than one hundred years, during which it 
attained the proudest position ever occupied by 
any nation. 

It is recorded that when the first parents were 
being expelled from the Garden of Eden God 
pronounced this blessing upon the race: "In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." I have 
heard this referred to as a curse, but the All-wise 

70 



Preliminary 71 

Father has never cursed the race. God seems to 
be an individualist and not a collectivist. "Who- 
soever will," "The soul that sinneth it shall die," 
and many similar passages are as far removed 
from socialistic teachings as is possible. They 
are the exact opposite. After some years of ex- 
perience and much observation, I feel justified 
in saying that, barring the promise of redemption, 
the greatest blessing God Almighty ever pro- 
nounced upon the race of man was when he said: 
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," 

Then God promulgated a great commandment 
containing two injunctions, the first of which the 
church seeks to enforce. It reads: "Remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The second, 
equally important and as woefully transgressed, 
says: "Six days shalt thou labor." I know 
people who violate each of these injunctions. 
They break the Sabbath and will not work the 
other six days. 

We also read that when God had made the 
worlds and swung them into space, he pronounced 
them "Very good." It is but reasonable to be- 
lieve, and certainly reverent to say, that the Great 
Jehovah got divine satisfaction and gratification 
from his creatorship, and his sovereignty. When, 
in the fullness of time, He made man in His own 
image, wanting to provide for man's happiness, 



72 Vanishing Landmarks 

He harked back to the thrill of creatorship and 
gave man the capacity for the maximum of happi- 
ness from his creatorships, his sovereignties, his 
achievements. 

One needs but little observation to recognize 
that achievement is the basis of man's material 
happiness, How often we hear men say: "This 
was raw prairie. I made this farm." "I planted 
this grove." "I started this store." "I estab- 
lished this bank." "I built this factory." I re- 
member very well Sir Thomas Lipton telling me 
where, as an immigrant with but fifty cents in 
his pocket, he spent his first night in New York 
City. There is something more than a joke in 
the statement that "self-made men are apt to be 
proud of the job." 

Nothing will develop manhood in a boy like 
giving him a pig, a calf, a lamb or even a rabbit. 
My! how a boy will grow in self-respect when 
permitted just to call a colt "his," and to feel the 
resultant sense of proprietorship. The estab- 
lishment of gardens for boys, and the offering 
of prizes for the best acre of corn grown by a 
boy, is the best "uplift work" that was ever at- 
tempted. Until very recent years the public has 
never sought to apply these principles of mental 
philosophy to the development of manly char- 
acter in the young. 



Preliminary 78 

As soon as the savage feels this divinely im- 
planted impulse for ownership and achievement, 
he is on the road towards civilization. Then, as 
he advances, "individualism" becomes more 
marked and instead of living in a hut, wearing 
braided grass and eating his meat and fish raw, 
he improves his condition and inequality begins. 
Is civilization a failure? It must be if socialism 
has any place in divine economy. 



CHAPTER X 

NO COMPETITION BETWEEN THE SEXES 

A brief discussion of the distinction between 
women as voters and as statesmen. 

While this chapter is parenthetical and is not 
essential to the argument, yet a discussion of the 
philosophy of human happiness would be incom- 
plete without it. 

If man had the power of creation his present 
wisdom would cause him not only to omit com- 
petition between the sexes, but he would avoid 
the possibility of even rivalry. The Creator in 
His wisdom did not put the sexes in competition 
and man can neither improve nor amend. 

Occasionally a woman develops a beard, but it 
is so rare that she usually enters a museum. 
Many years ago I saw a woman with a well- 
defined "Adam's apple." But none of us admire 
either "mannish" women or "sissy" men. 

Woman does not get her happiness from her 
creatorships or sovereignties. The normal woman 
prefers that her husband be the sovereign, and she 
his queen. Woman gets her happiness from her 

74 



No Competition Between the Sexes 75 

sacrifices. She gives herself to husband, to chil- 
dren, to home, to church, to hospital, to good 
deeds, and out of these sacrifices she gets the 
maximum of her happiness. A boy asked the 
butcher for tough meat and gave this reason : "If 
I get tender meat, dad'll eat it all." That would 
be a libel upon woman. We have each seen a 
thousand times where mother was getting more 
happiness in picking the neck and the back than 
the children in eating the white meat, while dad 
grabbed both upper joints. 

But there is another side to this. When dad 
is refreshed, when his blood is red, when he is a 
full-grown normal man, what does dad do? He 
bears all the hardships and all the dangers this 
world holds in store; he freezes in the arctics, he 
melts in the tropics, that he may bring to those he 
loves the choicest of earth, and adorn his queen 
with the brightest jewels that glitter. 

I have never supposed that when our early an- 
cestors were confronted with danger that there 
was any controversy as to who should defend the 
other. I have assumed that she as instinctively 
sprang to his left, as he to her right, that his sword 
arm might be free. His name was John. Her 
name was Mary. His brother's name was Peter; 
he married Margaret. Each pair named their 
son Ole. There being two Oles in the tribe, a 



76 Vanishing Landmarks 

distinguishing name was necessary. Do you sup- 
pose there was a family controversy to determine 
whether one should be called "Ole Johnson" or 
"OleMaryson"? 

No, woman does not wish to be the head of a 
clan, or to create or to possess, but she does desire 
that her husband shall be a chieftain, a builder 
and a landlord, and is willing to make any sacri- 
fice to that end. Woman wants to be loved and, 
incidentally, let me say, needs to be told that 
she is, in the tenderest way, and more than once. 
If told sufficiently often, she is even proud to be 
a slave to the man who loves her and sometimes is 
without ever receiving a single post-nuptial word 
of endearment. 

I doubt if anyone would favor woman's suf- 
frage if he thought it would result in changing 
woman's nature, or in making her masculine in 
manner. " Man's chief est inspiration to well- 
doing is hope of companionship with that sacred, 
true and well-embodied soul — a woman" — only 
because an All-wise Creator made the sexes as 
unlike as possible and still keep them both human. 

"For woman is not undeveloped man, 
But diverse. Could we but make her as the man, 
Sweet love were slain." 

Only one woman has occupied a seat in Con- 
gress and I am glad to record that she remained 



No Competition Between the Sexes 77 

womanly, and the other members manly. In that 
respect the experiment was harmless. She was 
permitted to violate the rules and to interrupt a 
rollcall to explain her vote. Neither the Speaker 
nor the members called her to order. Perhaps 
they would have done so had she not been crying 
at the time. During a speech criticising the en- 
forcement of law against a certain element in her 
state, she was asked several questions which, to- 
gether with her answers, were taken down by the 
official stenographer. When she revised the ex- 
tension of the notes for the Congressional Record, 
she again violated the rules and struck out the 
questions and answers and explained her conduct 
by saying: "I didn't want them in there." The 
congressmen affected, still chivalrous, did not 
even ask to have the Record corrected. 

It will probably be some years before another 
woman occupies a seat in either house, for states- 
manship is not gauged by intelligence or purity 
of motive, so much as by aptitude crossed on 
experience. Aptitude for the law, aptitude for 
mechanics and aptitude for statecraft, are quite 
rare, even among men. Many women have been 
admitted to the bar, and while a few have had 
some practice as attorneys, thus far the sex has 
developed no one of marked legal ability. If it 
should produce a lawyer or a master mechanic 



78 Vanishing Landmarks 

or a statesman, it will not necessarily entitle the 
unfortunate to a place in a museum, but it will 
be about as rare as anything in a museum. 



CHAPTER XI 

PURPOSES AND POLICIES OF GOVERNMENT 

In this chapter the wisdom of the Fathers is 
sought to be shown by the fact that they inaug- 
urated policies and purposes admirably calculated 
to develop the individuality of each citizen, and 
to afford the greatest opportunity for the maxi- 
mum of human happiness. 

With these philosophies of human life in our 
mind, let us pass to the study of the purpose and 
policy of our government as shown in its history. 

Imagine, if you will, that we have just won 
our independence, that the Constitutional Con- 
vention has been held, the matchless document 
there formulated has been adopted and that the 
United States of America has become a Nation. 
Then suppose all the people within our domain 
gather to determine the purpose and policy of 
their government. Will we choose the least pos- 
sible government, and the greatest measure of 
liberty, or shall the United States become a great 
business concern with all its citizens on the pay- 
roll? Shall government guard the liberties of 
the people while they prosecute their business. 

79 



80 Vanishing Landmarks 

or shall the government conduct the business and 
the citizen guard the government? 

Alexander Hamilton will attend this meeting 
and will make the speech of his life. Tallyrand 
declared Hamilton's to be the greatest intellect 
he ever met. In addition to well-nigh match- 
less mentality he probably possessed greater 
vision than any man of his time ; and vision is the 
natural parent of statesmanship, if indeed it be 
not statesmanship itself. 

Standing at the cradle of this nation, Alex- 
ander Hamilton assures Tallyrand that either 
Philadelphia or New York will be ultimately 
the financial center of the world. Back in the 
interior he predicts another metropolis. Even- 
tually, he declares, the United States will ex- 
tend to the Pacific Ocean and yonder on the 
western coast there will be another metropolis. 
If we build to such dimensions these must be 
our policies. 

He continues his speech and tells us that the 
United States is not only destined to be the most 
powerful but likewise the richest nation in t^e 
world. Our unearned increment will exceed the 
dream of man. These lands, now worthless, are 
intrinsically of great value. All the minerals and 
all the metals will be found within our borders 
and these will measure untold riches. Today we 



Purposes of Government 81 

have resources unequalled in any land, and re- 
sourcefulness unmatched by any people, and he 
reminds us that resourcefulness, when applied to 
resources, will produce greatness. 

Then someone in the audience rises and an- 
nounces himself a bolshevist and moves that the 
United States retain title to all these wonderful 
resources until they attain their maximum value. 
He proposes that we tolerate no "land hogs" and 
permit no one to exploit the resources of America 
or make profit out of iron or coal or oil or even 
a waterpower. 

Then a socialist declares this to be a concise 
statement of his creed and seconds the motion. 
Xon-partisan leaguers from North Dakota, and 
single-taxers from California, also favor it. An 
anarchist joins to say that while his people are 
opposed to any laws, yet if laws are to be made, 
they should each prohibit something and none 
should encourage anything. Then an I. W. W. 
declares that this will suit him, provided he be 
not required to work. But the proposition is lost. 

Then a preamble and resolution is offered to 
this effect: "Whereas, the All-wise Creator has 
decreed that man shall derive his greatest happi- 
ness from his achievements, therefore, with faith 
both in God and man and believing in America, 
be it resolved, that we emblazon upon the sky 



82 Vanishing Landmarks 

where all the world shall see, the great announce- 
ment that the Stars and Stripes shall forever 
stand for Opportunity!" This is carried by ac- 
clamation and amid applause. 

Then another moves that we give notice to 
every citizen, and to every person who may desire 
to become a citizen, that in the pursuit of guar- 
anteed happiness, each shall have guaranteed 
liberty to look over our broad domain, select the 
biggest thing he dare undertake and, if he makes 
it win, it shall belong to him. This motion is 
carried by a rising vote. 

Then a third man moves that in the develop- 
ment of our resources, the government shall foster 
everything, and father nothing. In his speech 
supporting the motion, he suggests that if Mr. 
Hamilton's prediction concerning the ultimate 
greatness of America proves true, men will en- 
gage in commerce ; they will build ships and they 
will build them too large for our harbors. Then 
the government, in fostering commerce, will 
deepen and widen our waterways, but it will not 
father commerce and take over the ships. It will 
leave to the citizen the right to own the ship, to 
fly his flag at its mast and to get the thrill that 
will surely come from sailing the biggest ship 
that cuts the waves of ocean. Achieve and be 
happy! This motion is also adopted. 



Purposes of Government 83 

After these hopeful and courageous souls have 
thus formulated a progressive policy, a man an- 
nounces his fear that he does not possess the 
necessary vision, and certainly not the requisite 
courage to accomplish any great thing and, there- 
fore, intends to become a wage-earner, and asks 
the assembled citizenship of America what they 
propose to do for him. Being honest with our- 
selves we are compelled to admit that we can 
promise little for the present. We tell him 
frankly that if he is simply seeking wages, he 
might as well remain in the country of his 
nativity. We assure him, however, that if he 
can endure pioneer hardships until the lands 
have value, until the mines are developed, until 
means of transportation are afforded, until the 
unearned increment begins to appear, we will 
give him better wages than the world has ever 
seen. Have we kept faith? Let us see. 

RELATIVE REWARDS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR 

As late as 1840 men worked twelve hours per 
day for twenty-five cents, payable in cornmeal or 
meat, for there was no money. I can remember 
when fifty cents per day was a good wage. Then, 
when property began to have value, we started 
up the spiral stairway of more wage and more 
wage and then more wage. 



84 Vanishing Landmarks 

What effect did this have? The world took 
notice and immigration increased as wages ad- 
vanced. In 1907 over one million immigrants 
landed on our shores, and more than half with 
less than the required $35.00 in cash. The next 
year 800,000 went back. Some of them had been 
here several years and others only a short time, 
but, in addition to what they had sent home, they 
took with them from three hundred to five thou- 
sand dollars each. 

How about capital? For nearly one hundred 
years, foreign capital sought American oppor- 
tunity. Foreign capital built our first railways, 
established our first banks, erected our first fac- 
tories. But about twenty-five years ago it largely 
ceased to come, for it could do no better here than 
elsewhere. Even American capital sought em- 
ployment in Mexico, China and in Canada, sim- 
ply because these countries offered better rewards 
for capital. The records of the Immigration De- 
partment contain positive proof that for more 
than twenty-five years labor in this country has 
been relatively better rewarded than capital. 
Otherwise capital would have come as labor came. 

This great truth ought not to be ignored. The 
only reason capital continued to come for one 
hundred years is because it could do better here 
than elsewhere. The only reason that it ulti- 



Purposes of Government 85 

mately went elsewhere is because it could do better 
elsewhere. Meantime, immigration, most of it 
swelling the ranks of labor, increased solely be- 
cause labor received in America a relatively larger 
share of the profits of business and enterprise than 
in any other country on the map. 

No one claims that even now labor receives 
more than its due. I am simply demonstrating 
the relative rewards of capital and labor in the 
United States and citing positive proof that 
immigrants who come seeking opportunity do not 
pursue a barren hope. 

Note to Second Edition — The census of 1810 shows $560 in- 
vested in factory and equipment for each wage earner employed, 
while the average wage — at that time almost exclusively men 
with families — was $240 per annum. Each subsequent census has 
shown a larger and larger investment of capital for each wage 
earner employed, until in 1915 over $3,000 in actual cash had 
been invested in plant, equipment and working capital for each 
wage earner 'employed. Meantime the average annual wage 
had increased from $240 for men to an average of $580 for men, 
women and some children. Thus in 105 years we have multiplied 
the average annual wage by two and one half, but it had become 
necessary to multiply the invested capital by six. I venture the 
guess that the present census will show $5,000 invested for each 
wage earner, and an average annual wage of more than $1,200. 
We will probably find that we have multiplied our average annual 
wage by five, but to do this it has been necessary to multiply 
invested capital by ten. 

If all profits of production had been distributed to labor as and 
when earned — this is the present demand of organized labor — who 
would now furnish the necessary capital to build, equip and 
operate the industries? If someone rises to say "the Govern- 
ment would furnish the money," ask where the Government would 
get it. Where does the Government now and always look for its 
revenue? 



CHAPTER XII 

THE RESULT OF THIS POLICY 

The policy defined in the preceding chapter is 
illustrated and its wisdom shown by the logical 
results thereof. The source and constant course 
of wages is also discussed. 

After spending seventy-five years of our 
national life in the discussion of state rights, and 
then four years of bloody fratricidal war, the 
fact that the United States of America is a 
nation and not simply a confederation of sover- 
eign states was definitely determined. Occa- 
sionally, we still hear people speak of "these 
United States." But there are none. This one 
is all there is. The term "these United States" 
comes dangerously near a treasonable utterance. 
The court of last resort rendered its decree at 
Appomattox that the United States of America 
is "one and inseparable, now and forever." 

After this perplexing question was settled, the 
government proceeded to foster industry in the 
largest possible way. For instance, certain men 
proposed that, if properly encouraged, they would 

86 



The Result of this Policy 87 

construct a railroad to the Pacific coast. They 
were reminded that only a few years before it 
had been said that not even a wagon road could 
be builded across the Rocky Mountains. "Yes," 
says General Dodge, "but we will build a rail- 
road." They asked a subsidy of money, to be 
returned as soon as possible, and one-half of a 
twenty mile strip of land in perpetuity. They 
were given both. The land was then worthless. 
Do you realize that if the land that was given 
to the Union Pacific Railroad on condition that 
the road should be builded to the Pacific Ocean, 
had been given to the Astors, on condition that 
the Astors should go out and look at it each year, 
it would have broken the Astors. There was no 
way to go out to see it. In effect, the govern- 
ment kept most of the land for homesteaders and 
gave half of certain adjacent tracts to railroads 
on condition that they make it worth while for 
homesteaders to occupy the reserved portions. 
What is the result? The Rocky Mountain Em- 
pire, yielding all the minerals, all the metals, 
lumber, fruits, vegetables, with millions of people 
living in happy homes, and all because the gov- 
ernment fostered enterprise and said: "Achieve 
and be happy." 

Where there is incentive there will always 
be achievement. 



88 Vanishing Landmarks 

ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION 

Permit one more illustration. One thousand 
can be furnished as well as one. Certain men 
proposed to the government that on certain con- 
ditions they would build a silk mill. The govern- 
ment exclaimed: "A silk mill in the United 
States! We produce no raw silk." This was 
promptly acknowledged and likewise the higher 
wages necessary to be paid in America. Still 
they promised to build a silk mill if they were 
permitted to buy their raw silk wherever they 
could find it without paying anything to the gov- 
ernment for the privilege, and, provided further, 
that foreigners who might bring manufactured 
silk to this market, in competition with the prod- 
uct of their mill, should be required to pay sixty 
cents out of every dollar received, into the treas- 
ury of the United States for the maintenance of 
this government, and go home contented and 
happy with forty cents. The government re- 
plied: "Go build your mill. If you cannot live 
on those terms, we will make the foreigner pay 
sixty-five cents." What is the result? Ninety 
million dollars' worth of raw silk is annually 
imported and forty-five million dollars are paid 
in wages to the workmen manufacturing it. 
Achieve and be happy! 



The Result of this Policy 89 

WHAT BECOMES OF WAGES? 

What becomes of this forty-five million dollars 
in wages annually paid by the silk mills of 
America? Every dollar of it is spent. We all 
spend all we get. We spend it for necessaries or 
comforts or luxuries or taxes or foolishness, or 
we expend it for a house, or a bond, or we deposit 
it in a bank and someone else spends or expends it. 

Let us assume that this particular forty-five 
million dollars of silk mill wages is paid to west- 
ern farmers for food. The western farmers send 
it east for knit goods and shoes and these fac- 
tories pay it out again to labor and labor sends 
it west again for food. How often will wages 
make the circuit? 

A man earns, say, five dollars and spends it at 
night for food and clothes. The merchant spends 
his profit and pays the balance to the producer 
of food and clothes. The producer keeps it as 
a reward for his toil or pays it for wages. In 
either event, it goes again for food and clothes. 
William McKinley estimated that wages would 
thus make the circuit and come back to the wage 
earner ten times per annum. I believe the esti- 
mate conservative. A million men annually earn- 
ing one thousand dollars each, makes one billion 
dollars in wages. This billion dollars going to 



90 Vanishing Landmarks 

the merchant ten times a year and back to labor 
as often, makes an aggregate of ten billion dol- 
lars in trade every twelve months. 

A SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENT 

Now, hold your breath. The figures showing 
the material result of fifty years of applied com- 
mon sense, will stagger you. 

When the European war began, our farms 
were producing more than the farms of any other 
country on the map. Our mines yielded gold by 
trainload annually, and we unloaded from coast- 
wise ships and railways on the soil of Ohio alone 
more iron ore than any other country in the world 
produced. In fifty years we had builded as many 
miles of railroad as all the rest of the world, and 
these roads, before the government began fixing 
rates, were carrying our freight for one-third of 
what was charged for like service elsewhere be- 
neath the sky. We cut from our forests one hun- 
dred million feet of lumber for every day of the 
calendar year, and annually pumped from the 
earth beneath 250,000,000 barrels of petroleum, 
over sixty-five percent of the world's gross prod- 
uct. Owing to the rapid exchange of wages for 
necessaries and comforts and then again for 
wages, our domestic trade had become five times 
as large as the aggregate international commerce 



The Result of this Policy 91 

of creation. Our shops and factories turned out 
more finished products than all the shops and all 
the factories of Great Britain and France and 
Germany combined, plus five thousand million 
dollars' worth every twelve months, and we paid 
out as much in wages as all the rest of the human 
family. Achieve and be happy! 

I hope you will understand that I am not de- 
fending either our form of government or our 
policy. George Washington, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, Benjamin Franklin and those other im- 
mortal men, may have been blithering idiots 
when they chose to create a republic instead of 
a democracy. I only cite the fact that they did 
create a republic. We might have accomplished 
more had the government tilled the lands, built 
the ships, constructed and operated the railroads, 
erected the factories, opened the mines, trans- 
acted the business and put everyone on the public 
payroll. I only seek to make it clear that this 
was not done and that we did fairly well, con- 
sidering. 

During all this period, the government ac- 
cepted as its appropriate function the protection 
of the citizen, while the citizen sought happiness 
and secured it through achievement. The gov- 
ernment sought to protect him from murder, but 
did not always succeed. It tried to shield him 



92 Vanishing Landmarks 

from robbery, but sometimes failed. It aimed 
to prevent extortion but was not always success- 
ful. It did its best to see that opportunity should 
knock once at every door, but did nothing to 
force an entrance or insure a second call. Still, 
notwithstanding errors, weaknesses and admitted 
inefficiency, the American citizen has been 
afforded better protection against all the evils 
that assail mankind, than the people of any other 
country and, in the pursuit of happiness, Ameri- 
cans have enjoyed far wider liberty of action, 
and an infinitely greater percent of realization. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ALL DEPENDENT UPON THE PAYROLL 

The importance of the American payroll upon 
which all rely is emphasized, and the necessity 
of safeguarding this payroll is shown together 
with a lesson in domestic economy. 

While the government has kept as few as pos- 
sible in its employ we are dependent, directly 
or indirectly, upon the payroll. Not only the 
merchant and the farmer, but the professional 
man and banker, have suffered when, for any 
cause, labor has stood in the bread line. This is 
well illustrated by the fact that the American 
people consumed 5.94 bushels of wheat per capita 
during 1892, only 3.44 bushels in 1894 and over 
7 bushels in 1906. He who had eaten at the back 
door as a tramp fed himself like a prince when 
every wheel was turning and everyone working. 

These figures are also illuminating: We im- 
ported for consumption $12.50 per capita in 1892, 
only $10.81 in 1896 and $16.49 in 1907. This 
may cause surprise when you remember that the 
minimum per capita importation of 1896 was 



94 Vanishing Landmarks 

when the average tariff duty collected thereon 
was only 20.67 percent, while in 1907 the aver- 
age rate was 23.28 percent. Notwithstanding 
the higher rate, we actually imported for con- 
sumption sixty percent more merchandise per 
capita than under the lower tariff rate. No more 
indubitable proof can be found that when labor 
is employed, and the payroll large, all classes and 
conditions prosper. 

ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY 

Suppose I build a factory costing, say, one 
hundred thousand dollars, and enter an untried 
field of manufacture. I pay out two hundred 
thousand dollars in wages and make a net profit 
of fifty thousand dollars. These figures are 
unimportant except as an illustration. I have 
made fifty per cent on my investment and the 
world says it is too much. It is too much, not- 
withstanding the fact that I take all the risk, 
make the experiment and demonstrate the pos- 
sibilities of a new industry. I also pay a wage 
at which my employees are glad to work. Not 
one of them risks a day's toil. But, because my 
profits are large, if for no other reason, I am 
certain to have competition next year. 

What shall I do with my fifty thousand dol- 
lars net profit? I can eat no more than I have 



'Dependent Upon the Payroll 95 

eaten, and I cannot wear more than one suit 
of clothes at a time. 

I challenge anyone to tell me how I can keep 
my profit away from labor except by convert- 
ing it into cash and locking it in a safe deposit 
box. Suppose I give my daughter a big wed- 
ding and spend much money for cut flowers. 
Cut flowers are nature's sunshine plus manage- 
ment and labor. So management and labor get 
that. But management is compelled to spend 
its share as I spend mine, and thus it all goes 
directly or indirectly to labor. I build for my 
daughter a home and fill it with furniture, china, 
glass and silver. Both the house and its fur- 
nishings consist of lumber in the forest, ore in 
the ground, clay in the pit, white sand in the 
bank, and other raw materials, plus manage- 
ment, labor and transportation— and transporta- 
tion is labor. Thus labor gets all except the 
portion which goes to management and capital, 
and management and capital are compelled to 
turn their respective shares into labor. 

Here the theoretical socialist and the scien- 
tist — I mean the man who recognizes that 
nothing is scientific except what stands the 
test of experience — part company. The socialist 
admits that cut flowers are sunshine plus labor 
and as sunshine receives no portion he demands 



96 Vanishing Landmarks 

that labor shall have it all. He forgets or 
refuses to recognize that without directing 
energy there would be no greenhouse, water 
system, heating plant or other essential of pro- 
duction. Labor and sunshine never produced 
anything better than a wild flower. Of course 
labor may and frequently does furnish the man- 
agement. All the necessary equipment for the 
production of the various articles I have men- 
tioned is the result of a directing genius which 
we call management. 

Let no one accuse me of trying to deceive or 
cajole labor. I not only admit, but I assert, 
that there is far more satisfaction, though not 
necessarily greater happiness, in drawing divi- 
dends than wages. I have had both experiences. 
I am an expert, for I have either touched or 
seen life at every angle. I have worked to the 
limit, day after day, from five in the morning 
until nine at night for hire, with not to exceed 
one hour for the three meals, and have gone to 
bed happy. For fifteen years I was at my law 
office, as a rule, from seven in the morning until 
ten at night, and for more than thirty years of 
my mature life I never took a day for recreation. 
My wife and I are now living quite comfortably 
from dividends, but we look back upon those 
strenuous years, in which this best woman in the 



Dependent Upon the Payroll 97 

world joyfully and even joyously bore her 
share, as the happiest period of our lives. Still 
I repeat, dividends are better than pay en- 
velopes or checks from clients. And I am glad 
they are. The All- Wise must have designed 
they should be, for otherwise life would be one 
dreary humdrum of drudgery, with little incen- 
tive to great effort and greater sacrifice, the 
universal quid pro quo in the great one-price 
store of republics. 

In this connection permit me to urge every 
man whose wakeful hours are spent in toil, to 
make it exceedingly clear to his children that 
there is more satisfaction in drawing dividends 
than wages. Let the youth also know that 
nearly every one who now draws dividends 
began by drawing wages. I can recall very 
few men whose names are or have been known 
beyond the confines of local communities, 
whether bankers, lawyers, manufacturers, mer- 
chants or railroad presidents, whose hands have 
not been calloused with humble toil. This is 
conspicuously so of Rockefeller, Carnegie, 
Wanamaker and Schwab, and was equally true 
of E. H. Harriman, C. P. Huntington, J. J. 
Hill, George M. Pullman, the McCormicks and 
practically all others who in days past rendered 
conspicuous service in making America. 



CHAPTER XIV 

AMERICAN FORTUNES NOT LARGE, CONSIDERING 

A country of such resources could not be developed 
as America has been without great fortunes re- 
sulting. Inequality of results in every field of 
human endeavor, except the acquisition of prop- 
erty, is welcomed and approved by everyone. 

I am not surprised at the fortunes that have 
been made in this country. On the contrary, 
even greater fortunes might have been reason- 
ably expected. As I look over the matchless 
resources of America, the surface of which as 
yet has been only scratched, and the matchless 
resourcefulness of our people, I marvel that 
even greater accumulations have not been made. 
I have been frequently surprised that I did not 
make more myself. But I can account for it, 
so far as I am concerned. I heard of a man 
who said he could write as good poetry as 
Shakespeare, "if he had a mind to." His friends 
assured him he had discovered his handicap. 
That was my difficulty. I had the disposition, 
and I have had the opportunity. As I look 
back over the years of my mature life I recog- 

98 



American Fortunes Not Large 99 

nize that I have failed to heed opportunities 
where I might have made more money than any 
man has made. But I did not have the vision; 
I did not have the courage; I did not have the 
"mind to." 

I can construct a highway so the worst old 
scrub of a horse, with his mane and tail full of 
cockleburs, can keep up with a thoroughbred. 
Yes, I can. But the mud must needs be very 
deep and quite thick. When the mud is suf- 
ficiently heavy, one horse can keep up with an- 
other. But when the track is improved, the 
horse with aptitude for speed will soon distance 
the old cockleburred scrub, who would, if he 
could talk, very likely insist there is something 
wrong with our civilization, and become a 
socialist. 

We all demand good roads, though we all 
know that if we have good roads we will have 
to take someone's dust. The only way, my 
friend, to protect yourself from the other man's 
dust is to have the roads so bad he cannot pass 
you. 

A PARABLE 

During the free silver campaign of 1896, a 
man with a full unkempt beard and shaggy hair, 
after several times interrupting the speaker, fin- 



100 Vanishing Landmarks 

ally asked in squeaky voice: "Mr. Speaker, how 
do you account for the unequal distribution of 
wealth?" The answer came with promptness. 
"How do you account for the unequal distri- 
bution of whiskers?" When the audience had 
quieted down, the speaker might have said: 
"My friend, I did not make that remark to cause 
merriment at your expense. I made it to illus- 
trate a great truth. I was born with equal 
opportunity and equal aptitude for whiskers 
with yourself. But I have dissipated mine. 
Whenever I have found myself in possession 
of any perceptible amount of whiskers, I have 
dissipated them. Had I conserved my whiskers, 
as you evidently have, I, too, would be a mil- 
lionaire in whiskers." 

Tell your boys, and the boys you meet, that 
if ever they become millionaires in dollars or 
in whiskers, the chances are it will be because 
they conserve. John J. Blair, the pioneer rail- 
road builder west of the Mississippi River, once 
told Senator Allison that the wife of Commo- 
dore Vanderbilt had many times cooked for him 
a five o'clock breakfast, for which she charged 
twenty cents. The seed from which all great 
fortunes have been grown was hand picked. 

In the war between the states more than a 
million men enlisted on either side, and at the 






American Fortunes Not Large 101 

end of four and one-half years there were fifty 
or one hundred multi-millionaires in military 
achievement and military glory and ten thousand 
in unmarked graves. Socialists do not object 
to these inequalities. While they seem to wel- 
come millionaires in art, in music, and in athletics 
they all point to millionaires in business as an 
unanswerable indictment of America's political 
system. They rejoice that it can produce an 
Edison, but mourn that it can also produce a 
Rockefeller. Yet the success of these two wiz- 
ards is traceable alike to extraordinary aptitude 
in their respective fields of achievement, plus 
extraordinary application. Neither of these men 
ever robbed me of a penny. On the contrary 
each has contributed to my comfort, thus adding 
to the worth of living, and each has cheapened 
for me the cost of high living. But for Mr. 
Edison, or someone of a different name to do 
what he has done, I would be deprived of elec- 
tric light and many other comforts. But for 
Mr. Rockefeller, or some one of a different name 
to do what Mr. Rockefeller has done, every 
owner of an oil well would be pumping his 
product into barrels in the olden way, hauling 
it to town and selling on a manipulated market, 
while I would be deprived of a hundred by- 
products of petroleum, be still paying twenty- 



102 Vanishing Landmarks 

five cents per gallon for poor kerosene, and there 
would be no such thing known in all the world 
as gasoline. 






CHAPTER XV 

POPULAR DISSATISFACTION 

It is as logical that dissatisfaction should develop 
because of inequality of results in "money mak- 
ing/' as it is that inequality in results shall fol- 
low inequality of aptitude and effort. This dis- 
satisfaction has tended strongly to develop 
socialistic thought and teaching. 

A century and a quarter, during which rep- 
resentatives were chosen because of actual or 
supposed aptitude, and retained in office during 
long periods — frequently for life — when nearly 
every industry was fostered, and none fathered, 
developed a people, the best paid, the best fed, 
the best clothed, the best housed, the best edu- 
cated, enjoying more of the comforts of life, far 
more of its luxuries, enduring less hardships 
and privations, than any other in all history; 
but it is an even guess if, at the same time, we 
did not become more restless, discontented and 
unhappy. 

We were not so much dissatisfied, however, 
with our own condition, abstractly considered, 
as with our relative condition. The man with 

103 



104 Vanishing Landmarks 

rubber heels would have thought himself favored 
had he not seen someone with a bicycle, and the 
man with a bicycle was contented until his friend 
got a motorcycle. The man with a motorcycle 
thought he had the best the world afforded until 
he saw an automobile and the man in the auto- 
mobile was happy until his neighbor got a yacht. 
"All this availeth me nothing so long as I see 
Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." 

I have lived some years in this blessed land 
and the only criticism I have ever heard, either 
of our form of government or our policy, is the 
fact that some men have got rich. 

I made this statement in a public speech some 
months ago and asked who had heard any other. 
A man answered: "Some people have got poor." 
I admitted that I had known a number of fel- 
lows whose fathers had left them money and 
who had got poor, but I told the audience that 
most of the poor men whom I had known had 
simply remained poor. I asked my critic if he 
had ever fattened cattle. He admitted he had 
not. Then I assured him that he would seldom 
see a steer getting poor in a feed yard where 
others were doing well and most were getting 
fat, but he would frequently see one that re- 
mained poor, notwithstanding his environments. 

Two men were standing by the side of the 






Popular Dissatisfaction 105 

New York Central Railroad. One said to the 
other: "My, see this track of empire! Four 
tracks, great Mogul engines taking two thou- 
sand tons of freight at a load, passenger trains 
making sixty miles an hour. There comes the 
express!" As the train passed a cinder lit in 
the eye of the enthusiast, when immediately he 
denounced the road, cursed the management and 
swore at all four tracks. 

In a country like ours, where conditions have 
been superb, resources matchless and resource- 
fulness unequalled, none should be surprised at 
the speed we have developed and no one ought 
to use language unfit to print simply because 
there are cinders in the air. Admittedly there 
are. We have all had them in our eyes. They 
are more than annoying, but the only way to 
prevent cinders is to tear up the tracks. And 
it is simply surprising the number of good peo- 
ple who are trying to make the world a paradise 
through a policy of destruction. 

Socialists, near-socialists, bolsheviki, anarch- 
ists, I. W. W.'s, non-partisan leaguers, single 
taxers, and all the infernal bunch of disturbers 
and propagandists of class hatred, unintention- 
ally led and reinforced by a large percent of 
the teachers of political economy and sociology 
in our colleges and universities, seem bent upon 



106 Vanishing Landmarks 

nothing less than a revolution in both our form 
of government and our policy of government. 
Unless something be speedily done to counteract 
there surely will be precipitated in America what 
France experienced, and what Russia is now 
suffering. 

WHILE STATESMEN SLEEP THE EVIL ONE 
SOWS TARES 

In the winter of 1898 I attended a much 
advertised lecture by George D. Herron, then 
Professor of Applied Christianity in one of the 
largest colleges west of the Mississippi. The 
lecture was given in the largest church of Des 
Moines, on a Sunday evening, and most of the 
other churches adjourned their services that they 
might hear this "remarkable man." Several of 
the leading pastors occupied the pulpit with him 
and the pastor of the second largest church in the 
city introduced the lecturer, I remember, as "a 
Man with a Mission." He spoke at length and 
his utterances were applauded by a good per- 
cent of the congregation, and by several of the 
pastors. Of course the vile life he was living, 
and the viler social belief which he then and now 
entertains, were unknown, but his far more dan- 
gerous teachings were well known to all and 
approved by many. The burden of his "mis- 



Popular Dissatisfaction 107 

sion" was denunciation of what he called the 
"Divine Right of Property," which he compared 
to the "Divine Right of Kings" and predicted 
that as the latter had been overthrown by revo- 
lution, the former must be. It was indeed a 
"theory pickled in the preserving juices of pul- 
pit eloquence and laid by against a day of reck- 
oning." I speak of this not to criticise the good 
people who approved his utterances, many of 
whom did not comprehend what was involved, 
but to show the prevalence of bolshevist teach- 
ings twenty years ago. Unless he has changed 
he should prove very satisfactory to the bolshe- 
vists of Russia, where at this writing he is sup- 
posed to be at the request of the President. 

Quite recently the professor of political econ- 
omy in one of the state universities of the Mid- 
dle West, in the course of his daily denunciations 
of the policy of internal improvement as pur- 
sued by this government, and his condemnations 
of wealth and the possessors thereof, referred 
to the grant of land to the Northern Pacific 
Railroad and characterized it as a "gigantic 
steal." A member of his class who had had 
rare privileges interrupted to ask: "If the lands 
in this grant were so valuable how do you ex- 
plain the fact that Jay Cooke, after financing 
the Civil War, went broke in selling Northern 



108 Vanishing Landmarks 

Pacific Railroad Bonds, secured by both the 
road and the lands, at 85 per cent of par?" The 
professor inquired where the young" man had 
obtained his information and was told: "From 
the memoirs of Jay Cooke." "Well," said the 
professor, "that is a subject to be considered." 
But the next day he continued sowing seeds of 
anarchy. 

During the winter of 1916 I listened to a 
lecture by a man of international reputation 
before the students of one of our very large 
eastern universities. Early in his tirade, im- 
properly called lecture, he informed the students 
that there were two ways to make money — "one 
to earn it and the other to steal it." He told 
them that when they worked on the street rail- 
way they earned their money, but when the 
company charged five cents for a ride, it stole 
its money. The students applauded. Later he 
told them that if they wanted to go to Boston 
over the New Haven Railroad, and all the work- 
men should die or strike, they would get no 
farther than they could walk; but if all the 
stockholders and bond owners were to die, they 
"might thank God for the dispensation but they 
would get to Boston just the same." The stu- 
dents applauded. He closed in this language: 
"They talk about preparedness, and well they 



Popular Dissatisfaction 109 

may, for if these conditions continue, prepared- 
ness will be necessary against the internal up- 
rising that is certain to follow." The students 
again applauded. 

If there has been any systematic effort made 
to suppress, nullify or destroy bolshevistic 
teachings, not always as bold but of the same 
character, with which nearly every college and 
university is daily deluged, both from chair and 
rostrum, I will be glad to know when and where 
the counteracting forces have been applied. 
Many men of wealth have thought they were 
advancing the interest of their country and 
humanity generally by endowing colleges and 
universities. We have made education a fetich 
and have assumed that all education is alike 
good. It would be far better for America to 
have its youth poisoned with strychnine than 
with bolshevism. Poison administered through 
the stomach is not contagious, but what has been 
lodged in the brain at these hotbeds of socialism 
spreads, and should it break in epidemic no army 
can effect a quarantine. May the long-suffering 
Father protect his foolish children from the 
natural and legitimate results of their foolishness. 



CHAPTER XVI 

GREED AND ITS PUNISHMENT 

The government very properly interfered to 
curb aggression and extortion. That is a most 
appropriate function of government, but a very 
inappropriate end and can be carried too far. 

Just cause for complaint did, does and always 
will exist. The Kingdom of Heaven has not 
yet been established by human agencies. Greed 
of gain, whetted by indulgence, led to practices 
in many instances reprehensible. Some of the 
big fellows who had achieved great things, and 
rightfully owned what they had accomplished, 
seemed to think they also owned the little things 
that others had done. Punishment became nec- 
essary and the government administered it wisely 
and with lavish hand. Not a few of the big boys 
were whipped in the presence of the infant class, 
a thing always gratifying to juniors. There- 
upon, all the little people became hilarious over 
these just punishments and it became a pastime 
to get after "those higher up." One of our dis- 
tinguished senators is credited with the state- 
no 



Greed and Its Punishment 111 

ment that the people changed the motto over 
their Temples of Justice to "Soak Him." It 
soon became more difficult to secure the acquittal 
of an innocent man of affairs, than it had been 
to convict the guilty. Until time is no more the 
pendulum will continue to swing from one ex- 
treme to another. 

PUNISHMENT A MEANS, NOT AN END 

I know of no better illustration of the neces- 
sity of punishment and the desirability of quit- 
ting when its purpose is accomplished than an 
incident told me by a man who claimed to have 
been an eye-witness. 

Back in the days when young men attended 
school until they were married, a theological 
student attempted to teach in a country district 
on the frontier of Ohio. The big boys became 
obstreperous. Pie urged them to treat him re- 
spectfully for he said he was studying for the 
ministry. The effect was as one might suppose. 
They carried him out, they washed his face in 
the snow, they dipped him in the creek until he 
gave up in despair. 

Shortly thereafter, another youth applied. 
The director told him he could not maintain 
discipline. He said if he failed, it would cost 
the district nothing. Certificates to teach were 



112 Vanishing Landmarks 

then unknown. When the pupils assembled, 
they found him sitting at his desk reading. 
They looked him over, sized him up, thought 
him an easy mark and commenced pounding 
their desks and stamping their feet, and kept 
it up until nine o'clock. Then the new teacher 
laid aside his book, locked the door, put the key 
in his pocket and called school to order. The 
preliminiaries having been unusual, silence was 
secured. He informed them they need not at- 
tempt to escape, for the windows were nailed 
down. Then, opening his carpet bag, he brought 
forth a revolver, a bowie knife and a blacksnake 
whip. Then after warning the pupils not to 
arise until their names were called, he summoned 
John Jones to the floor. With whip in one hand 
and revolver in the other, he proceeded to give 
private lessons. When through with John he 
called Bill Smith. He did not need to ask their 
names. After going some distance down his list, 
he told them they had probably learned more 
that day than they had ever learned in any one 
day in their lives, and perhaps as much as it was 
wise to attempt to learn in one day, adding: 
"When you come again, come expecting to obey 
the rules, attend to business and make no false 
motions. There will be no further exercises to- 
day." They never knew whence he came nor 



Greed and Its Punishment 113 

where he went. He had performed his mission 
and wisely left future tasks to his successor. 

I did not inquire concerning the subsequent 
history of that school, but I understand human 
nature enough to know that if his successors 
were men without plan or purpose or policy of 
their own, and only sought to repeat the popular 
practices of their predecessor, they permanently 
ruined that school. There was but one wise 
course. Without apologizing for what had been 
done, or lowering the standard of discipline, 
there should have been a return to the ordinary 
tasks of the schoolroom without unnecessary de- 
lay, for I declare to you that corporal punish- 
ment is not the purpose for which schools are 
established, nor are criminal prosecutions the aim 
and end for which governments are instituted 
among men. Both are essential at times, but let 
us hope that captains of industry and business 
men generally have learned their lesson suffi- 
ciently so that it shall not be necessary to con- 
tinue indefinitely what was so admirably done a 
decade or more ago. 

Unless punishment is discriminate^ adminis- 
tered, demoralization will follow, and if the big 
boys are whipped for no other purpose than to 
please the little folks, they will probably go fish- 
ing. And whenever the big boys of America 



114 Vanishing Landmarks 

take a day off, trouble ensues. Only a very few 
years ago, I saw a thousand men standing in 
line awaiting their turn for a cup of coffee and 
a slice of bread at the hands of charity. Busi- 
ness simply could not stand the lash incessantly 
applied. It had taken a day off. 

Then the war came, abnormal demands were 
created and great prosperity ensued. But be- 
fore the revival of industry, sufficient time 
elapsed to permit a fundamental economic prin- 
ciple to be elucidated in the greatest school of 
the world, the school of experience. 



CHAPTER XVII 

OBSTRUCTIVE LEGISLATION 

While supervision and control of big business is 
essential, the trend has been in the direction of 
interference and in many instances inhibition. 

While both political parties, and all adminis- 
trations, profess great friendship for business, 
the treatment that both political parties have 
accorded business is well illustrated by the fable 
of the elephant that, in going through the 
jungle, stepped on a mother bird. When the 
elephant saw the havoc she had wrought, she 
called the orphaned chick and said: "This is 
deplorable. I did not intend to kill your mother. 
I am a mother myself and have the mother 
instinct. But the deed has been done and is 
past recall. Being unable to restore your mother 
I shall give my efforts to the task that your 
mother would perform if she were living." So 
the elephant sat down on the chicks. 

The American people have shown great apti- 
tude and achieved unparalleled success in two 
distinct fields — baseball and business. During 

115 



116 Va nishing Landmarks 

the period of development and successful prose- 
cution of these two great national games, the 
rules of the game were made by experts in the 
respective games. Practical bankers made the 
rules of banking, experienced traffic men made 
rules governing transportation, and expert base- 
ball players formulated the rules of that game. 
Business has suffered because of modern meth- 
ods, and baseball will go where business had 
gone prior to the war, should the same policy 
be pursued and the committee that is to make 
the rules of baseball be selected under the direct 
primary system, from among those who never 
play the game, and seldom see it played, upon 
a platform demanding that strenuous playing 
shall cease, and that the score must be a tie 
regardless of errors. 

Instead of permitting practical bankers to 
apply fundamental banking principles, we have 
forty-nine distinct sets of statutory rules, one 
for each state and one for the union of states, 
enacted by men some of whom have no more 
knowledge of banking than they have of aero- 
nautics, and frequently administered by those 
whose tenure of office depends upon the amount 
of trouble they can make. 

We legislate to prevent monopolies and for 
the ostensible purpose of encouraging competi- 



Obstructive Legislation 117 

tion, but the rules of banking are well nigh pro- 
hibitive of the creation of new competitive con- 
cerns. The president of one of the largest bank- 
ing institutions in the United States, whose op- 
erations extend into every state, told me that 
he had refused a loan to Phil Armour except 
upon collateral that could be sold on the stock 
exchange of any city, and in the same conver- 
sation said there was not a loan in his institution 
except upon listed collateral. Only big concerns 
can furnish that class of security. 

Suppose you were to build a packing house 
costing one million dollars and should make a 
bond issue of five hundred thousand dollars so 
as to have collateral. The officers of no bank 
would care to lend on those bonds. To do so 
would be to rely upon their judgment, and some 
little bank examiner would report that the bank 
had loaned on collateral that had no market 
value. Thereupon the Banking Department 
would write criticising the loan and directing 
that the letter be read to the board and a cer- 
tain number of directors sign a reply. The 
course of least resistance is to refuse all loans 
except to monopolies or upon stock exchange 
collateral. 

Not long ago a friend applied to one of the 
large banking institutions in New York City 



118 Vanishing Landmarks 

for a loan upon unlisted securities. The presi- 
dent took from his desk a certificate of stock of 
a certain railroad and said: "I do not believe 
this stock worth the paper it is printed on, but 
I will lend money upon it. I believe your secu- 
rities are absolutely good but I will not lend a 
dollar upon them." 

The reason was sensible, and the banker was 
wise when banking laws and the rules of bank- 
ing departments are considered. The railroad 
stock was listed and dealt in every hour. Hence 
the public assumed it had value, and it could be 
sold on the stock exchange for a price that fluct- 
uated little. Its intrinsic value, if any, was 
problematic, but it did have a market value. 
The security offered was not listed. In the 
opinion of the banker it had abundant intrinsic 
value, but since it did not have a market value 
on the stock exchange, he did not feel justified 
in inviting criticism from the Banking Depart- 
ment by relying upon his judgment. It is diffi- 
cult for a new concern to get credit and without 
credit no concern can live. 

BECAUSE ONE HORSE KICKS SHALL WE 
HAMSTRING THE WHOLE DROVE? 

To a greater or less degree, the same policy 
has been applied to nearly all important branches 



Obstructive Legislation 119 

of business. The rules for the operation of 
railroads and insurance companies are both com- 
plex and conflicting. The books have to be kept 
to conform to the legislative requirements of 
every state in which the concern does business. 

A certain express company formerly employed 
one attorney at two thousand dollars a year. It 
now maintains a legal department occupying an 
entire floor of an office building, and the officers 
of the company are in daily consultation lest 
they violate some state or federal statute and go 
to the penitentiary. 

The president of an insurance company told 
me that if he did in Missouri what he was re- 
quired to do in Texas, the penitentiary would 
await him, while if he omitted it in Texas, his 
punishment would be equally modest. 

Severity of punishment in the United States 
has not yet reached the limit witnessed in France 
late in the eighteenth century when direct 
government was carried to its logical extreme. 
At that time the death penalty was prescribed 
for those who took food products out of circula- 
tion and kept them stored without daily and 
publicly offering them for sale. Failing to 
make a true declaration of the amount of goods 
on hand for eight days, and retaining a larger 
stock of bread than was necessary for daily 



120 Vanishing Landmarks 

wants, were punishable by death. Death also 
awaited the farmer who did not market his grain 
weekly and the merchant who failed to keep his 
shop open for business. We may or may not go 
to this extreme in America. I do not at the 
moment recall any punishment at the present 
time in this country more severe than six months 
in jail and a fine of five hundred dollars for 
spitting on the sidewalk. 






CHAPTER XVIII 

THE INEVITABLE RESULT 

As soon as the government changed its policy and 
denied exceptional rewards for exceptional risks 
virile Americans refused to assume these risks 
and internal improvements ceased. A distinction 
is drawn between pioneer capital and improve- 
ment capital. 

The effect of this changed attitude toward 
internal improvement and business generally is 
exactly what every thoughtful person foresaw. 
No railroad construction worth mentioning has 
been begun in the last decade. A few unim- 
portant extensions have been made. About five 
years ago, John D. Spreckels attempted the 
construction of a road from San Diego to the 
Imperial Valley, but a possible six percent re- 
turn, if it proved a success, and total loss if it 
failed, did not prove inviting to capital. Facing 
disaster, he turned it over to one of the old estab- 
lished lines to be builded on the accumulated 
credit of that system. 

The United States was never in such great 
need of additional transportation as during the 

121 



122 Vanishing Landmarks 

last ten years and never before was so little done 
to supply it. James J. Hill, the great empire 
builder of the Northwest, used to furnish figures 
to prove that we must invest two billion dollars 
new capital per annum to keep pace with the 
development of the country. It did not require 
a sage or a seer to discern that if we multiplied 
production from farm and factory, mill and 
mine, indefinitely, and failed to provide trans- 
portation facilities, we would ultimately reach 
a time when crops would rot on the ground 
while those who had grown them would be freez- 
ing and coal miners starving. Truly, the Amer- 
ican people are "kin-folks." 

For more than three years, liberty hung in 
the balance simply because the United States, 
with all her development, had failed to keep her 
transportation facilities abreast of her produc- 
tion. 

We had no merchant marine and during the 
entire period of the war were dependent largely 
upon the Allies to transport our troops and 
our munitions. Adverse marine laws had been 
passed rendering it impossible to sail an Ameri- 
can ship in deep sea transportation except at 
great loss even if the ship had cost nothing 
ivhatever. It became necessary for the govern- 
ment to take possession of the railroads in order 



The Inevitable Result 123 

to avoid the effect of statutes filled with restrict- 
ive and prohibitive provisions. If the railroads 
had been operated under private ownership as 
the government is now operating them, every 
railroad president in the United States would 
be in the penitentiary. The roads asked an in- 
crease of fifteen percent in freight rates, which 
raised a furore of objection from both shipper 
and public, and it was denied. Government 
control and operation resulted in a loss of 
seventy million dollars the first month. Then 
both freight and passenger rates were increased 
twenty-five percent, generally, and in many 
instances, one hundred percent, and no one 
murmured. And still the loss continues. It was 
four hundred million dollars the first year of 
government operation. 

WILL WE EVER BUILD MORE ROADS? 

If someone should predict that the last rail- 
road ever to be built in the United States of 
America, has been built, are you prepared to 
question its correctness? Will it be necessary to 
change our policy if more roads are to be 
builded? 

Listen! Will you invest money in railroad 
construction, knowing that if it succeeds you 
will be allowed no more than six or eight per- 



124 Vanishing Landmarks 

cent on the money wisely spent, and that if, 
through misfortune or want of foresight, it fails, 
you will lose everything? The theory of public 
utility commissions generally, is that if money 
is unwisely invested it ought to be lost, and 
when it is wisely invested, it should earn about 
six percent. 

Suppose you and I install a hydraulic power 
plant and build our dam according to plans and 
specifications prepared by a reputable engineer, 
Then a flood destroys it and demonstrates that 
the money was unwisely spent and, therefore, 
according to these commissions, should be lost. 
If the dam stands the strain, and if it was wisely 
placed, and if it be economically operated, we 
will be allowed six percent. Are you ready to 
join in an enterprise of this character? If you 
will not, who will? 

Suppose a promoter presents to you an engi- 
neer's report made from a preliminary survey 
of a railroad extending, let us say, from St. 
Louis, around through Arkansas and Texas to 
Galveston. I am informed that such a report 
'exists, and that it shows that the road will go 
through the largest body of uncut white oak in 
the world, extensive pine forests, tap that belt 
of zinc ore extending south from Joplin, Mis- 
souri, make available large coal measures, iron 



The Inevitable Result 125 

deposits and agricultural areas now obtainable 
at less than twenty dollars per acre, but which 
with proper transportation facilities, and a pro- 
gressive citizenship, would be worth two hun- 
dred dollars per acre. The engineer estimates 
that the road when completed will earn twenty 
percent on the cost of construction, and you are 
asked to buy some of the stock at par. The 
statutes of most states forbid the sale of even 
initial stock issues for less than par. How much 
of this stock will you take? Will your neigh- 
bors and friends want some? How much stock 
in an unbuilt railroad do you think can be sold 
at any price when good farm lands adjacent can 
be bought at twenty-five percent of par? 

While the wisdom of the modern law-maker 
prohibits the sale of stock at less than par few 
if any statutes have been enacted, limiting the 
price at which bonds may be sold. Suppose you 
are offered bonds instead of stock. Possibly you 
can get the bonds at less than par. What will 
you pay, and how large a block do you desire? 
Remember, the road has not yet been built. The 
money must be placed in the bank to be used in 
construction and yon must wait for your interest 
until the road has earned it. If you will not 
buy, will your neighbors? 

It will help to solve these problems if you rec- 



126 Vanishing Landmarks 

ognize early in your calculations that men with 
much money are not much bigger fools than we 
with little. If you and I will not invest in rail- 
road construction under present conditions, men 
of means and experience will not, and the last 
railroad ever to be built beneath the Stars and 
Stripes is now in operation unless — unless! 

THE OLD WAY 

During the half century and more of the 
unparalleled growth and development of the 
United States, bonds of unbuilt railroads were 
offered with fifty percent or more of stock as a 
bonus. The estimates indicated that the roads 
would earn not only interest on the bonds but 
dividends on the stock, and a portion of the 
unearned increment resulting from development 
was in this way awarded to those who took the 
risks. Investors were thus encouraged to expect 
reasonable returns, plus fifty percent or more of 
water. The promoters who had paid the ex- 
penses of preliminary surveys (often abandoned 
as worthless) also labored with hopes of great 
gain if they should discover a meritorious propo- 
sition. Those who bought and occupied the 
lands contiguous to new roads endured some 
hardships but took no risks and yet expected to 
add at least four hundred percent of water to 



The Inevitable Result 127 

their investments. They realized in most in- 
stances more than one thousand percent profit 
on the original cost. 

Does anyone doubt that a return to the policy 
of apportioning unearned increment equitably 
among those who shall in any way contribute to 
the general result will revive internal improve- 
ments? No one asks, and no one would con- 
sent, that all the unearned increment should go 
to the stockholders of a railroad. Every one 
favors governmental supervision and control of 
rates. The point where a few diverge from the 
mass is in recommending that those whose vision 
and courage are solely responsible for develop- 
ment, shall have an equitable share of the un- 
earned increment. 

Lest I be misunderstood, I desire to state 
parenthetically that I have never owned a rail- 
road bond or a share of railroad stock; and I 
have never promoted a railroad or been em- 
ployed in any capacity by a railroad. Most of 
what little I now possess, I have made by water- 
ing the capitalization of real estate. Occasion- 
ally, in times past, when I have known of a 
railroad about to be constructed, and have recog- 
nized an opportunity to make a little money 
through another man's vision, on another man's 
courage and at the other man's risk, I have pur- 



128 Vanishing Landmarks 

chased a little contiguous real estate, watered 
the capitalization from one hundred to one thou- 
sand percent, and then insisted that the road 
should haul me and my produce at cost plus 
six percent. 

PIONEER CAPITAL 

Does it occur to you that pioneer capital 
should be accorded pioneer rewards? Pioneer 
people make sacrifices, endure hardships, suffer 
privations; but in America they take no risks 
and their rewards have been certain and speedy. 
But their rewards would be neither certain nor 
speedy did not pioneer capital precede them, 
blaze the way and assume all risks. During the 
period when pioneer capital was liberally re- 
warded, development outstripped the imagina- 
tion of men. It will do the same again if given 
like encouragement. 

I assume that a return of six percent would 
be ample on capital, let us say, to construct an 
additional track for the Pennsylvania Railroad 
between New York and Philadelphia. That 
would be improvement capital. Would the 
same rate be satisfactory for money invested 
in an unbuilt road into an undeveloped country? 
To state the case is to state the argument, and 
yet no railroad commission has yet been ere- 



The Inevitable Result 129 

ated with both the wisdom and the courage to 
stand openly for a distinction between de- 
velopment capital and pioneer capital. Unless 
returns are permitted large enough to induce a 
reasonable man to take a risk none will take it, 
for the unreasonable man has no money to risk. 

In a preceding paragraph I referred to the 
attempt of Mr. Spreckels to build a railroad 
across, or rather through, and much of the way 
under, the most barren succession of mountain 
peaks and defiles I have ever seen. An auto- 
mobile road has been built at great expense 
across the mountain. Nine-tenths of the way 
not a green leaf or living thing — not even a 
bird or insect — will be seen. 

Mr. Spreckels is a very wealthy man. He is 
supposed to own over fifty-one percent of the 
gas, electric light, street railways and ferries of 
San Diego. He does not, however, consume 
fifty-one percent of the food cooked by the gas 
he generates; he does not enjoy fifty-one per- 
cent of the light that illuminates that beautiful 
little city; he does not take fifty-one percent of 
the rides on street car or ferry; and not one per- 
cent of the unearned increment, the advance in 
the value of property occasioned by his public- 
spirited enterprises, inures to him. Having 
more money than he can use and more than his 



130 Vanishing Landmarks 

children can legitimately spend, why does he 
risk everything on a railroad involving an aggre- 
gate of more than twenty miles of tunnel 
through solid granite? I will tell you why. 

For some reason, let us hope a sufficient rea- 
son, the All- wise Father has implanted in cer- 
tain natures somewhat more than the average 
vision, somewhat more than the average cour- 
age, somewhat more than the average desire to 
achieve, and He seems to have ordained that 
these men shall be happy onty when achieving. 
Service expresses the thought admirably when 
he put into the mouth of the returning Klon- 
diker : 

"Yes, there's gold and it's haunting and haunting; 
It lures me on as of old. 
But it isn't the gold that I'm wanting, 
So much as just finding the gold." 

So it has ever been, and thus it is and ever 
will be. These daring, progressive souls risk 
their past, their present, their future and the 
future of their families, upon gigantic propo- 
sitions, the consummation of which makes the 
appellation, "I am an American," the proudest 
boast of man. 



CHAPTER XIX 

UNEARNED INCREMENT 

Originally the government permitted each to 
enjoy the natural advance in the value of his hold- 
ings — the unearned increment. In recent years 
it has discriminated and in certain classes of in- 
vestments has sought to limit rewards to the 
equivalent of reasonable interest rates. 

The first piece of land I ever owned was a 
half interest in one hundred and sixty acres. 
My law partner and I got four hundred and 
eighty dollars together and we bought one hun- 
dred and sixty acres at three dollars per acre. 
We put part of it under plow, rented it and 
within a few years, sold it. That land is no 
more productive today than when we sold it, but 
the rascal who owns it has watered the capital- 
ization until when I buy a pound of butter or 
a dozen eggs I am helping to pay him a divi- 
dend on two hundred and fifty dollars per acre. 
We watered it a little, ourselves. We sold it, 
I remember, for twelve dollars and fifty cents 
an acre. That was the first dollar I had ever 
received that I had not earned in the hardest 

131 



132 Vanishing Landmarks 

way. It was the first dollar of unearned incre- 
ment that ever came my way. It was the first 
water, so to speak, I had ever tasted. I liked it. 

I remember when John Trumm purchased 
that land of us. If he had said to me: "The 
country is new, population sparse, commerce 
limited; if these conditions change and the land 
advances in value, to whom will belong the un- 
earned increment?" Very promptly I should 
have told him it would belong to him. There 
was not only a competency but a speculation in 
the purchase of that land. 

But suppose he had said to me: "If I do not 
buy this land, I shall put my money into the 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad that 
is now building through the county. The coun- 
try is new, the population sparse and commerce 
limited. If these conditions change and the rail- 
road advances in value, to whom will belong the 
unearned increment?" In my innocence, I 
should have told him it would belong to him. 
I might have warned him that if it resulted like 
the first three attempts to build a railroad across 
Iowa, he would lose every dollar he invested, but 
if the time had then arrived, and if the road was 
built economically and operated efficiently, and 
did prove a success, it doubtless would advance 
in value and the unearned increment would be- 



Unearned Increment 133 

long to those who had shown great vision, taken 
great risk and exercised great skill. 

SOME CONCRETE CASES 

I recall a man who purchased in an early day 
large bodies of Iowa land at from three to five 
dollars per acre. His rentals must have equalled 
twenty percent per annum on his investment. 
Then he watered the capitalization and sold 
these lands at seventy-five dollars per acre. 
They are now worth over two hundred dollars 
per acre. But, even at seventy-five dollars, they 
made him a millionaire, financially. Then he 
assailed the railroads for watering their capital- 
ization, though money invested in a railroad 
never yielded a quarter as large returns as his 
land investments netted. His opposition to rail- 
roads, however, made him a millionaire, politi- 
cally. 

Some years ago a man asked me to join him 
and some friends in promoting a railroad to the 
coal fields of Alaska. I asked him who owned 
the coal and was told that anyone could have all 
he cared to buy at a nominal price. I called 
attention to a statute that forbade the same men 
owning both the railroad and the coal. Then I 
proposed that I take the coal and let him and 
his friends build the railroad. If they sue- 



134 Vanishing Landmarks 

ceeded, I would then go to the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission and get a rate that would 
give them six percent on their investment and 
I would take all the profit. I reminded him 
that the public thought six percent was enough 
for money invested in railroads. The road has 
never been built. 

I met a friend not long ago who, in explain- 
ing that the world had been good to him, told 
me that some years before he had bought a 
large body of badly located but excellent timber 
back in the mountains of Washington, at fifteen 
cents per thousand on the stump. Then a rail- 
road was built up to his holdings. That was 
some years ago and during the period of national 
development. When the road was completed, 
he went to the Interstate Commerce Commission 
and got a rate so that he was then selling his 
timber, which cost him fifteen cents per thousand, 
for five dollars per thousand, while those who 
builded the road are presumably getting six or 
eight percent on their investment and will until 
the timber is exhausted, when their road will be 
worthless. My friend is not a reactionary but 
is far-sighted. I think he said he studied finance 
from the standpoint of a farmer. 

A few years ago, at a Chamber of Commerce 
dinner in New York, Myron K. Jessup asked 



Unearned Increment 135 

me if I knew that he was once president of a 
railroad in Iowa. The road extended from 
Dubuque to Farley. I asked him if he remem- 
bered when an engineer by the name of Smith 
made a preliminary survey from Farley to 
Sioux City, and reported that there was nothing 
west of Iowa Falls worth building a railroad 
into. "Remember it!" said he. "He made that 
report tome." 

Think of it. A man living and in good health 
in 1906 who was old enough to be the president 
of a railroad at a time when two-thirds of the 
north half of Iowa was considered not worth 
developing. Ultimately the road was con- 
structed and I happened to be at Storm Lake 
when the last spike was driven connecting the 
two ends of the road. This was in 1870. That 
whole stretch of country could have been bought 
at that time at an average of less than five dol- 
lars per acre. I remember riding forty miles 
without seeing a house. The lands I saw that 
day could not have been sold for two dollars and 
are now worth two hundred dollars per acre. 

These lands were worthless without the rail- 
road and the railroad relatively worthless with- 
out the lands. The lands, exclusive of improve- 
ments, have paid in rentals more than twenty 
percent on their cost and their present value is 



136 Vanishing Landmarks 

ninety-nine-one-hundredths water. No money 
invested in railroads or any other industry ever 
yielded returns comparable with that. 

The wealth of the United States, estimated at 
two hundred and fifty billion dollars, is prob- 
ably ninety percent water. Farm lands, timber 
lands, mineral lands, oil lands, town lots, origin- 
ally cost very little. Deducting improvements, 
interest and taxes from rents and returns al- 
ready received, plus the market value, and the 
difference is the unearned increment or the water 
that has been added to the original capitalization. 

Suppose, if you please, we are just opening 
a new country. What policy would you recom- 
mend? Would you expect each one to attempt 
everything? Or would you encourage a division 
of labor and enterprise? I fancy we would fol- 
low the policy the Fathers adopted. We would 
encourage the improvements of lands, the con- 
struction of transportation facilities, the building 
of mills and factories, of stores and banks, the 
opening of mines and the development of water 
power, and then we would tacitly agree that 
whoever contributed in any manner to the com- 
mon good should share equitably in the resultant 
unearned increment. 






CHAPTER XX 

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHIES 

This is a preliminary chapter intended to show 
that management is the most essential factor in 
every business proposition. Several illustrations 
are given, and some advice offered. 

Before discussing government construction, 
ownership and operation of railroads, and other 
so-called public utilities, I want to call attention 
to some well-known but seldom recognized 
principles. 

All business stands on three legs. No busi- 
ness can stand on two legs. Notwithstanding 
the persistent nonsense that has emanated from 
press and platform, from pulpit and professor's 
chair, by thoughtless politician and thoughtful 
demagogue, capital and labor, unaided, have 
never accomplished anything and never will. 
But management, plus capital, plus labor, have 
done wonders and still greater achievements 
await the cooperation of this irresistible trinity. 

Some have tried to make it appear that the 
public constitutes a fourth leg. While the pub- 

137 



138 Vanishing Landmarks 

lie has rights, and affords markets, business suc- 
ceeds only when the public does not interfere. 

Take the case of the farmer. His lands, his 
tools, his teams and other livestock, constitute 
his capital. He performs the labor, furnishes 
the management, and all goes well. Occasion- 
ally a farmer prospers when he furnishes only 
capital and management, notwithstanding Ben- 
jamin Franklin's proverb: "He who on a farm 
would thrive, must either hold the plow or 
drive." The one absolutely indispensable ele- 
ment of success in farming is management. No 
man ever prospered on a farm simply because 
he worked. He must wisely manage if he lifts 
the mortgage. When the farmer's management 
fails, the sheriff becomes his land agent, and it 
matters not how productive his land, or how 
willing his team, or how fruitful his flock or 
how hard he works. 

You never knew a merchant to fail except 
when his management buckled. You may have 
thought some failures were due to want of capi- 
tal; but even in these instances management 
was solely at fault, for it attempted too much 
with its available capital. Barring accidental 
and incidental fortune, good or ill, management 
or the want of it is the prime factor in every 
success and in every failure. 



Business Philosophies 139 

The president of a certain Chicago federation 
of labor, after listening to this thought, brought 
a party of friends to my platform and in the 
course of a brief visit said: "They have talked 
to us about capital and labor, capital and labor, 
nothing but capital and labor. We knew there 
was another guy in there but we couldn't find 
him." Then he added: "And you have got to 
pay that guy, too." 

ILLUSTRATIVE INSTANCES 

Some years ago and during the period of evo- 
lution in harvest machinery, Marsh Brothers put 
upon the market what was known as the Marsh 
Harvester. It was the first radical improvement 
upon the old self-rake. Two men rode upon the 
machine and bound the grain as it was cut. For 
some reason, perhaps disagreement among the 
interested parties, the concern was reorganized 
into three independent companies and certain 
territory was allotted to each. A local preacher 
by the name of Gammon took one allottment, 
associated with him William Deering, and the 
largest manufacturing plant then in the world 
was built where nothing had stood before. The 
other two concerns took equally favorable terri- 
tory, operated under the same patents, obtained 
their capital in the same market, hired labor at 



140 Vanishing Landmarks 

the same wage, and utterly failed. Five years 
thereafter nothing remained except court rec- 
ords to show they had ever existed. 

Did capital build the Deering plant? It did 
not. Did labor do it? By no manner of means. 
The germ of management in the brain cells of 
William Deering, which no crucible would dis- 
close and no scalpel reveal, was wholly and alone 
responsible. Do you suggest that able subor- 
dinates and efficient labor were in part respon- 
sible? My answer is that William Deering was 
wholly responsible for having able subordinates 
and efficient labor. Andrew Carnegie said to 
me : "I have never been able to discover wherein 
I have been more clever than others except in 
selecting men cleverer than I." That is the 
acme of clever management, and affords the 
only certainty of success. 

During a congressional investigation of the 
meat industry the president of one of the "big 
five" packing houses appeared, and in the course 
of his examination testified that while holding a 
position of considerable responsibility to which 
he had been gradually advanced, he was asked 
to organize a company to take over a certain 
concern, the stock of which was selling at about 
ten dollars per share. The necessary capital was 
tendered and he was offered a salary of one 



Business Philosophies 141 

hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year, 
quite a large block of stock gratis and an option 
on thirty-five thousand shares at ten dollars per 
share, which he subsequently exercised. When 
asked if he thought his salary was unreasonably 
large, he called attention to the fact that within 
ten years his company had become one of the 
five largest in the world and that its stock had 
advanced from ten dollars per share to par. 
Thereupon the chairman of the committee re- 
marked that while he was opposed to large 
salaries, he thought that one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars per annum was not excessive 
for this particular witness. Did capital accom- 
plish that? Did labor? No, management did it. 

SUPPOSE A CASE 

In a certain city a thousand men are out of 
employment. In a bank in that city a million 
dollars are out of employment. In the foothills 
near the city fifty million tons of coal are out 
of employment. The unemployed men see the 
opportunity and offer their joint note for the 
money with which to develop a coal mine. But 
the officers of the bank will not lend money that 
does not belong to them upon the signature of a 
thousand men, each out of employment. Then 
management walks in and says to the president 



142 Vanishing Landmarks 

of the bank: "I am a practical coal operator. 
I have had experience, and have associated with 
me a board of directors, each a successful coal 
producer. In proof that we understand what 
we are undertaking, here is the report of the 
best-known coal engineer in the world, who at 
our expense has bored every square rod of that 
tract of coal, showing the exact number of tons 
available. Here also is an assay showing the 
quality of the coal. It is worth so much per 
ton on the track. It will cost so and so to put 
it on the track. After we have invested a mil- 
lion dollars of our own money, we want to bor- 
row a million to complete the development and 
for working capital." By giving a majority of 
the stock, and all the bonds of the company as 
collateral, and by each director signing the note, 
the money is obtained. The hitherto idle men 
are now employed and a great industry results. 
Query: Locate the cause. Is it capital? Capi- 
tal languished and earned nothing. Is it labor? 
Labor was in rags and labor's children were 
crying for bread. That coal field is developed, 
the wealth of the nation increased, homes are 
warmed, furnaces made to glow, wheels to turn, 
by management, plus capital, plus labor. It is 
so everywhere, in each and every instance, in 
this and all other lands. 



Business Philosophies 143 

Capital can usually be had upon approved 
security, and labor is most always available at a 
satisfactory wage, but management, the one 
essential of every achievement, is the most diffi- 
cult thing in the world to find and, when dis- 
covered, imposes its own conditions and names 
its reward. 

A WORD OF ADVICE 

If teachers of economics and of sociology 
would somewhat oftener and more generally 
teach the Benjamin Franklin brand of common 
sense and make their classes understand that 
there are in the United States vastly more 
twenty-five thousand dollar jobs than there are 
twenty-five thousand dollar men to fill them, 
bolshevism would diminish as rapidly as it has 
increased under the opposite tuition. Where do 
our editors and newspaper writers come from? 
Whence the principals of our high schools, teach- 
ers in our colleges, preachers and lawyers? 
Ninety percent of them are from our colleges 
and universities, and those who graduate with 
socialistic and bolshevistic tendencies have usu- 
ally imbibed them either from imported profes- 
sors or from American professors who have re- 
ceived their Ph.D's in Germany. 

In this connection I also want to say a word 



144 Vanishing Landmarks 

to parents: Would it not be well early in the 
life of your boy to impress upon him that he 
will probably get out of life something fairly 
commensurate with what he puts into life ? You 
might also suggest that if he will observe he 
will probably discover that those who complain 
most because the world has been stingy with 
them, are seldom able to show a receipt for much 
that they have contributed to the world. If in- 
stead of giving wholesome guidance you permit 
to go unchallenged the teachings which your boy 
is certain to get in the school room, in the pew, 
at the theater and the movie, on the street, and 
especially from the demagogue, that those who 
make money are invariably dishonest, those who 
accumulate wealth are scoundrels and that those 
who amass fortunes should be in the peniten- 
tiary, I will go security for your son that he 
will never disgrace his parents by getting the 
family name on the letterhead of any big insti- 
tution, or in the Directory of Directors. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE GOVERNMENT'S HANDICAP 

In this chapter an argument is made that no 
government, and especially no republic, can supply 
the necessary management for business enter- 
prises. The effect of popular and political inter- 
ference with public business is illustrated. 

The principal reason why government busi- 
ness operations are always financial failures is 
that no republic can supply the all-essential 
third leg. Its management is always defective. 
It can furnish capital, it can employ labor, but 
in a government where the people have a voice, 
management always buckles. 

Senator Aldrich was frequently quoted as 
saying that the government could save three 
hundred millon dollars per annum if it would 
apply business principles to its affairs. The 
distinguished senator never said that. What he 
did say was that the government would save 
three hundred million dollars per anum if it 
could apply business principles. Experience had 
taught the senator what experience has taught 
everyone who has had experience and what 
10 145 



146 Vanishing JLandinarks 

observation has taught the observing: that it 
cannot be done. 

During the campaign of 1916, I sat on the 
platform and heard the then candidate for gov- 
ernor of a great middle-west state tell an audi- 
ence that if he were elected governor, he would 
apply business principles to state affairs. I fol- 
lowed him and told his hearers that, if elected, 
he would do nothing of the kind. In the first 
place, it was impossible, and, secondly, they 
would not consent to it even if it were possible. 
I reminded them that I knew better than their 
candidate, for I had tried it. I did suggest, 
however, that simply because business principles 
cannot be applied to public affairs, is no excuse 
for conducting public affairs in a thoroughly 
unbusinesslike manner. It is not necessary to 
violate every business principle because some 
cannot be applied. 

The candidate was elected, as he deserved to 
be, and has made one of the best, many say the 
best, governor his state ever had. But he will 
have to admit that he cannot remove officials 
simply for inefficiency, and he cannot make ap- 
pointments in the face of public opposition, how- 
ever fit and worthy the applicant. In a thou- 
sand ways he cannot exercise the independent 
discretion which he would if president of a bank 



The Government's Handicap 147 

or the head of some industrial corporation. 

When I took charge of the Treasury Depart- 
ment I found an appraiser at one of the prin- 
cipal ports who had outlived his usefulness. He 
was not dishonest. Dishonesty is the least of all 
evils of government service. He was simply in- 
efficient. He had a good army record, was a 
very reputable gentleman, highly esteemed, ab- 
solutely honest, and Mr. McKinley had made 
him appraiser. There were many evidences of 
inefficiency. Importers at far distant ports were 
entering their merchandise at this city and ship- 
ping them back home, manifestly for the pur- 
pose of evading the payment of appropriate 
duties. I have no doubt that the government 
was losing a million dollars or more a year 
through the inefficiency of this good man. 

President Roosevelt authorized a change. I 
informed the two senators from that state what 
had to be done, and asked them to select the 
best man they could find and I would arrange 
a vacancy to meet their convenience. President 
Lincoln is credited with saying that when he had 
twenty applicants for a position and appointed 
one, he made nineteen enemies and one ingrate. 
I wanted to protect these senators from nineteen 
enemies. 

They found an excellent man and I had the 



148 Vanishing Landmarks 

old appraiser come to Washington. He fully 
recognized his utter failure, and willingly re- 
signed. We parted friends. The inexperienced 
will suppose that was the end of the incident. 
It was not. It was the beginning of it. The 
removal was declared to be purely a political 
deal. The President was criticized, I was abused 
and the two senators maligned. Every promi- 
nent Grand Army man in the country was asked 
to protest, and most of them did, until this dear 
old fellow was made to believe he had been im- 
posed upon. He published his grievances in an 
extended interview and in about three months 
died of a broken heart. 

The people will not consent that public affairs 
shall be conducted as business is conducted. 
Had this man been in the employ of a business 
enterprise in any large city, his removal would 
not have elicited so much as a notice that he had 
resigned for the purpose of giving attention to 
his "long-neglected private affairs. " 

Public opposition to the application of busi- 
ness principles to government affairs is well 
illustrated in the location and erection of public 
buildings. Chicago has a federal building which 
was intended to accommodate, and does hold, 
not only the post office, but serves as court house, 
custom house and shelters all other federal 



The Government's Handicap 149 

offices. It cost nine million dollars and is ill- 
suited for anything. There are plenty of archi- 
tects who can design a court house, or a post 
office, or an office building, but no one has yet 
appeared, and no one ever will be found, who 
can combine the three without ruining all. 

During the period of construction, the Chi- 
cago post office occupied temporary quarters on 
the lake front in a wooden building, veneered 
with brick, built expressly for the purpose. Un- 
questionably it was the most convenient, and 
therefore the best post office in the United 
States. This of course is from the standpoint 
of a business man. Everyone connected with it 
regretted its abandonment for the huge, impos- 
ing but outrageous new building. The archi- 
tect's pride centered in its enormous dome. All 
the mail had to be taken from the basement up 
a steep incline and, until they began using heavy 
gasoline trucks, it required four horses to pull 
out from under the building what one horse 
could haul to the depot. 

Pittsburgh wanted a building equally impos- 
ing, and Congress appropriated a million dollars 
to buy a site. That sum would pay for nothing 
suitable in the central part of the city. The 
newspapers had all purchased property at the 
top of the hill, in the newer part of the city, 



150 Vanishing Landmarks 

and the Secretary of the Treasury was expected 
to locate the Federal Building" accordingly. He 
did not do so and for this reason: There were 
no street cars going near the proposed site. It 
was before the advent of gasoline trucks and 
the mail would have to be hauled up the long 
inclines by teams. In slippery weather a team 
of horses, unless freshly shod, cannot climb that 
hill with an empty wagon. 

Inspired by the experience at Chicago, the 
Secretary decided to give Pittsburgh the best 
post-office service in the world. An entire block 
near the principal depot was purchased, at fifty 
percent or more above its market value. But 
that was relatively cheaper than anything else 
offered, and less proportionately than what the 
government is usually compelled to pay. A 
suitable site for a business enterprise employing 
a like number of people, and doing an equal 
volume of business, would be tendered on a 
silver platter. The people's government never 
got "something for nothing" until we entered 
the war. What it then got and where it got it 
is quite generally surmised. 

The intention was to erect a steel-framed post 
office, not more than three stories high, with 
wide court, so the light would be abundant, in- 
stall a system of pneumatic or electric carriers, 



The Government's Handicap 151 

with tubes extending to all the depots and sub- 
stations of the city. This, I submit, is exactly 
what any business concern would have done. 
But it was not satisfactory. A perfect furore 
was raised, every bit of which had its root either 
in a hope of profit through the location of the 
building, or in a desire for a big and imposing 
public building with an enormous dome. The 
people thought it a shame that Pittsburgh should 
be asked to put up with the expenditure of a 
fraction of the money that had been thrown 
away in Chicago, and the fact that one hour 
would be saved in the distribution and delivery 
of every piece of mail, did not palliate the 
offense. A post office erected solely for the pur- 
pose of efficient mail service will satisfy no com- 
munity. 

There are quite a large number of ports of 
entry where the entire revenue collected is not 
enough to pay the expenses of the office. In my 
annual reports I recommend that several of 
these be abolished, but no congressman from 
those states would support such a recommenda- 
tion and no congressman from any other state 
would favor it lest economies applicable to his 
own locality would be thus invited. Everyone 
insists upon economy in government matters, 
but all demand that it be exercised in a distant 



152 Vanishing Landmarks 

state, and preferably in some territory or in 
the District of Columbia where the franchise 
is denied. 

Many will remember William S. Holman of 
Indiana, for many years chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations. He was not only an 
able man but a wise and economical statesman, 
and merited the appellation by which he was 
internationally known, "The Watchdog of the 
Treasury." The Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors, desiring his support, inserted an item 
for dredging a creek extending into Holman's 
district, so ships could come to central Indiana. 
Of course Mr. Holman wanted to be returned 
and was therefore compelled to support the bill. 
He even made a short speech in favor of this 
particular item. When he closed, Tom Reed 
arose to remark in his inimitable drawl, 

" 'Tis sweet to hear the honest watchdog's 
bark 
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw 
near home." 

A SELF-EVIDENT FACT 

No government subordinate or bureau chief 
ever got into difficulty except when he did some- 
thing. No one ever knew a refusal to act, or a 



The Government's Handicap 153 

delay in acting, to be the subject of judicial or 
legislative investigation. Pigeonholes all filled 
is infinitely safer than a few signed documents. 
This is fully recognized throughout the whole 
realm of public service and the result is logical — 
everything of a decisive nature is deferred as 
long as possible. 

In 1906 Congress authorized the Secretary of 
the Treasury to settle a claim for ice sold to the 
government for the use of the Union Army in 
1863. I am the only official who, in more than 
forty years, could have been impeached for 
action taken in connection with that knotty 
problem. 

Subordinates in corporations and private busi- 
ness are criticised and lose their positions for 
failure to act. With the government, men are 
discharged and disgraced only when they do act. 
Unless a clerk or bureau chief or head of a 
department is caught red-handed, so there can 
be no question of guilt, there is no way to rid 
the department of an incubus without great diffi- 
culty. What I am trying to emphasize is a fact 
that everyone knows, few recognize, fewer still 
admit and many deny, to- wit: That govern- 
ment, state and municipal affairs are necessarily 
conducted upon entirely different principles 
from ordinary business. 



154 Vanishing Landmarks 

TWO ARMY INCIDENTS 

I am indebted to an army officer for the fol- 
lowing, which I have not verified and therefore 
cannot vouch for, but I give it simply because 
it is absolutely true to life. 

During the Indian insurrections in Texas, a 
certain officer got word to his quartermaster that 
he must have supplies and ammunition at a 
given point on the Rio Grande River without 
delay or his detachment would be annihilated. 
The quartermaster must have been a civilian 
for, regardless of red tape and formality, he 
proceeded to act. He found a boat and sought 
to engage it. But the river was low and the 
owner dared not attempt the trip. "But," said 
the quartermaster, "if you do not go, those men 
will be annihilated." "If I do go," said the 
owner, "my boat will be annihilated, and it's the 
only boat I have. You have more men." 

Rather than fail, the quartermaster purchased 
the boat for twelve thousand dollars. He loaded 
it with supplies and ammunition, started it up 
the river and made his report. Promptly, the 
department at Washington refused to ratify the 
purchase, and reprimanded the quartermaster 
severely for exceeding his authority in purchas- 
ing a boat. I submit that the department was 



The Government's Handicap 155 

right. No member of Congress would vote to 
give a quartermaster authority to buy a river 
steamer. Even the Secretary of the Navy 
would need congressional authorization. Fortu- 
nately, the boat returned and the quartermaster 
tried to get the man to take it back. He re- 
fused. Then the quartermaster found a pur- 
chaser, sold the boat for twelve thousand five 
hundred dollars, paid the purchase price and 
sent five hundred dollars to Washington. 
Promptly the department refused to ratify the 
sale and again reprimanded the quartermaster 
because he had sold a boat without authority. 
And the department was again right. Congress 
never has given and never will give authority 
to a quartermaster or anyone to sell a boat or 
anything else except after prolonged condemna- 
tion proceedings, and then at auction. Any cor- 
poration, under like circumstances, would have 
made that quartermaster a vice-president. In- 
stead his pay was held up, and he faced court 
martial until some comptroller risked his official 
life and reputation by closing the account, also 
in violation of law. 

If I remember correctly, it was Colonel Phil- 
lips of the regular army who gave me this 
chapter from his experience: While in com- 
mand at a frontier post he was asked by the 



156 Vanishing Landmarks 

department to make a recommendation concern- 
ing a certain matter. Following the regulations, 
he referred the matter to his quartermaster. The 
quartermaster reported favorably to the colonel 
in command, and he, as colonel, joined in the 
recommendation and sent it to Washington. In 
due time he received instructions to proceed and, 
again obeying regulations, he directed the quar- 
termaster to carry out the instructions of the 
department. This was done and the quarter- 
master so reported to the colonel in command, 
and the colonel approved this report and for- 
warded it to the department. All of this was 
regular and would afford no occasion for com- 
ment but for the fact that Colonel Phillips, the 
officer in command, was also quartermaster. He 
had asked himself what had best be done, made 
his report to himself, approved the report made 
to himself, joined in his own recommendation, 
then directed himself what to do, reported to 
himself that it had been done and then, as com- 
mander of the post, had transmitted all the 
papers to the department, which, in course of 
time, were approved, and one more closed inci- 
dent in the military affairs of the United States 
of America resulted. He had signed the same 
paper seven times and there had been no way 
to abbreviate. 



The Government's Handicap 157 

I submit that if he had been in charge of rail- 
road operations, some congestion of freight 
would have resulted while all these necessary 
formalities were being worked out. 

I want it definitely understood that in re- 
cording these instances, no criticism is intended. 
No material improvement ever can be made 
without throwing wide open every conceivable 
door and shutter through which fraud and cor- 
ruption not only can creep but leap and run. 
I give them for no other purpose than to prove 
established principles to which there are few if 
any exceptions, to- wit: That a republic in 
business is an ass. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE POST OFFICE 

The common belief that the Post Office Depart- 
ment is conducted along approved business 
methods is sought to be dissipated. 

The advocates of government ownership con- 
tinually remind you that the Post Office Depart- 
ment is a government managed affair. It is, 
and I think I am perfectly safe in saying that 
until the government took control of the rail- 
roads, cables, telegraph and telephone lines, com- 
menced building ships and constructing air- 
planes, it was the worst managed institution on 
the face of the earth. And it has mattered little, 
if any, which political party has had control of 
its affairs. 

For six years every new post office erected in 
the United States has borne upon its corner 
stone this inscription: "William G. McAdoo, 
Secretary of the Treasury." As you have seen 
this evidence of official prominence in city after 
city in every state of the Union, have you won- 
dered why the name of the Postmaster General 

158 



The Post Office 159 

did not appear above, or below, or at least on 
the rear of the building? It is simply because 
the Postmaster General has nothing in the world 
to do with the selection of sites, erection of build- 
ings, or in their care or improvement. The 
Treasury Department buys and pays for the 
sites, prepares the plans, erects the buildings, 
repairs them, lights them, heats and janitors 
them. It also pays the rent of post office quar- 
ters where the government has not been as yet 
foolish enough to build. The Treasury Depart- 
ment also audits the accounts of all postmasters 
and not one dollar of all this expense is charged 
to postal receipts. Even the salary of the Post- 
master General and all his clerks is paid from 
appropriations independent of postal revenues. 
Then, with no rent to pay, no coal or current to 
buy, with janitor and elevator service gratis and 
accounts audited, the Post Office Department 
has run behind an aggregate of something over 
two hundred million dollars. Any express com- 
pany would be glad to take the Post Office 
Department off the hands of the government if 
it could have free rent, free coal, the salaries of 
their principal officers paid and all their accounts 
audited gratis, for sixty-five per cent of what it 
now costs the government to take care of our 
mail service. 



160 Vanishing Landmarks 

RIVERS AND HARBORS 

Under the Constitution, Congress has charge 
of all navigable streams and harbors and it has 
spent billions in their improvement. Colonel 
Hepburn once made the statement on the floor 
of the House that the appropriations for the 
improvement of the channel of the Mississippi 
River between St. Louis and the Gulf were 
sufficient to have built a ship canal of boiler iron 
between these two points. No one ever ques- 
tioned the correctness of the statement. 

A recent River and Harbor bill contained an 
appropriation to dredge the channel of a stream 
in Texas where the government's engineers re- 
ported there was only one inch of water. An- 
other brook in Arkansas with only six inches of 
water, got an appropriation. I assume that two 
more votes were necessary. I might add for 
the reader's information that any stream in the 
United States can be made navigable in law by 
a joint resolution of the two Houses of Con- 
gress saying that it is navigable. Lawyers 
would call that navigable de jure but many of 
them cannot be made navigable de facto however 
much is expended in dredging and widening. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CIVIL SERVICE 

The sole purpose of discussing the Civil Service 
System in this connection is to show wh^t must 
ensue if the government continues its trend and 
enlarges its business operations. Partisan politics 
cannot be eliminated, neither does the Civil Ser- 
vice secure the most efficient. Concrete and 
actual instances are given as illustrations. 

So much has been said in favor of Civil 
Service by its friends, and so much criticism 
offered by those who know little about it, that 
I am impelled to submit a few observations 
drawn from five years' experience at the head 
of a department having, a portion of the time, 
as high as twenty thousand people on its payroll, 
over ninety percent of whom were in the classi- 
fied service. 

It is not my purpose to criticise or commend. 

I do intend, however, to make reasonably clear 
some of the inevitable conditions that would 
ensue if the government should remain operator 
or should become owner and operator of rail- 
roads, merchant ships, express, cable, telegraph 

II *i 



162 Vanishing Landmarks 

and telephone companies, and other public util- 
ities, constructor of airplanes, merchant ships, 
and logically producers of all materials and 
supplies therefor. 

Everyone concedes that to avoid complete 
partisan prostitution of these widely-extended 
and diversified interests, every agent, servant 
and employee, with the possible exception of 
unskilled laborers, would have to be covered 
under Civil Service. This would palliate the 
evil but, as we shall presently see, would not 
prevent political manipulation and influence, and 
would render efficient service absolutely im- 
possible. 

It will be idle to approach this subject without 
recognizing a very marked distinction between 
business operations and government service. 
Business is conducted primarily for the profit 
that legitimately results. The wise man knows, 
however, that the better the service, the more 
certain his rewards. The merchant who best 
serves his customers will have the most custo- 
mers to serve, and the lawyer who best protects 
his clients will have the largest and the most 
lucrative practice. Service and profit are seldom 
divorced. If it be true, as has been said, that a 
grateful people will make a beaten path to the 
door of him who improves a mousetrap, it is also 



Civil Service 163 

equally true that the world's financial rewards 
are liberal beyond calculation to him who ren- 
ders any substantial service. 

This principle does not apply to government 
matters. Here the ultimate end is not profit, 
but power. While a political party may hope 
to be continued if its service is acceptable, it has 
no right to expect its administration will be ac- 
ceptable if it neglects the ordinary methods by 
which approval is secured — which is politics. In 
politics, everything reasonable and honest is 
made to serve the ends of politics, exactly as in 
business everything reasonable and honest is 
made to contribute to profit. 

A most natural result of public service is 
loyalty to superiors. This is true in a very 
marked degree in all government departments. 
If government clerks were to vote, I suppose 
three-fourths of them would support the party 
in power, without regard to which party it hap- 
pened to be. One-half of the balance would 
fear even to vote lest they might cause offense 
and prejudice their promotion — the sole con- 
sideration with many department clerks — while 
only a comparative few would openly support 
the opposite party and some of these would sub- 
sequently regret it. 

A case is current where an official who is sup- 



164 Vanishing Landmarks 

posed not to be devoid of future political ambi- 
tion, said to a friend who had witnessed the 
obsequious servility of subordinates: "There are 
two million of these and every one is a voter." 

You will recognize that no promotion, demo- 
tion or dismissal within a business organization 
invites newspaper comment or criticism from 
friend or foe. In government service the exact 
opposite is the rule. When constituents inform 
a congressman that someone from his district 
has had his salary reduced, the whole delegation 
from that state get busy. Let it be known that 
some clerk has been longer in a department than 
another who has received more promotion, and 
an explanation is certain to be demanded, and it 
is relatively useless to urge inefficiency as the 
cause. In such cases the public ascribes but two 
causes, politics and favoritism. 

While "offensive partisanship" is publicly for- 
bidden, it is generally recognized on the inside 
that no activity of a partisan character is "offen- 
sive" so long as it is quiet, and is exercised in 
favor of the party in power. Public officials, 
of the rank of postmasters, customs and internal 
revenue collectors, and district attorneys are not 
expected to be delegates to political conventions, 
but I have never known their superiors, when of 
the same political faith, to object to their being 



Civil Service 165 

in the town while the convention is in session, 
maintaining suitable headquarters at the hotel, 
and even volunteering valuable advice to those 
who happen to call, as well as to those who are 
sent for. 

But politics is not the only weakness of the 
system. The public has been taught to believe 
that Civil Service examinations result in secur- 
ing the most efficient. This is a serious delusion. 

Those who take civil service examinations 
usually find their names rejected or upon the 
eligible list within six months. It takes about 
that long to classify. Any time within two years 
thereafter the applicant is liable to be certified 
and called. 

When a requisition is made the Commission 
certifies three names. It is not at all likely that 
they are the three whose examinations show 
them the best qualified. That question is not 
considered — applicants either pass or fail. They 
are simply the three names at the head of the 
list from the state whose quota is not exhausted. 
The officer calling for the clerk examines the 
records of the certified names and makes a 
selection. Thereupon the applicant is notified 
to present himself at a given place where the 
minimum salary — in normal times seven hundred 
dollars per annum — awaits him. Even though 



166 Vanishing Landmarks 

he took his examination only twelve months be- 
fore, the chances are he declines, giving as his 
reason that he is now getting a thousand dollars 
with good prospects of promotion. 

It is only a question of time, however, when 
some applicant will be found who, during the 
period between examination and certification, 
varying from six months to two years and six 
months, has been unable to get a job at seven 
hundred dollars and he jumps at the chance to 
"serve his country." 

You knew this must be the way but probably 
you had not stopped to analyze it. The Civil 
Service screen is so constructed as to catch the 
small fish and allow the large ones to escape. 
And there is no way known to man to change it 
without opening wide the door for favoritism, 
which the Civil Service system is supposed to 
close and effectively bar. 

Nevertheless some of the clerks and employees 
selected in this way develop a good degree of 
efficiency and prove far better than anyone 
would expect from an inspection of the ma- 
chinery by which they are secured. With 
scarcely an exception they are honest and con- 
scientious toilers, with very little ambition. A 
few have ambition but these should, and usually 
do, soon resign. 



Civil Service 167 

I have in mind a business organization with 
several thousand on its payroll. Its operations 
extend from ocean to ocean and its employees 
include geologists, chemists, engineers of every 
kind, purchasing agents, salesmen, superintend- 
ents of both construction and transportation, 
clerks, clear down to unskilled laborers. Every- 
one connected with the organization is made to 
understand that any position is open to him pro- 
vided he can show greater efficiency than the 
incumbent. While most of the force have grown 
up within the organization, not all have been 
started at the minimum salary nor promoted be- 
cause of length of service. The former is in- 
sisted upon, and the latter urged, by all friends 
of Civil Service. 

Imagine such a concern as I have described, 
depending upon an outside commission to ex- 
amine and certify the people whom it might 
employ in its clerical and technical force, and 
being bound by its own by-laws not to employ 
anyone selected in any other way. No business 
concern could face competition and survive 
under such a system. Yet everyone recognizes 
that when applied to government affairs, Civil 
Service is not only the best but the only way. 
I am not criticising it. I am only showing the 
inevitable result if we change the purpose of 



) 68 Vanishing Landmarks 

government from the greatest liberty institution 
in the world to a corporation for the transaction 
of business. 

During five years that I recruited the force 
of the Treasury Department from names certi- 
fied by the Civil Service Commission, nothing 
occurred to engender ill feeling. The members 
of the Commission and the officers of the Treas- 
ury Department understood each other perfectly 
and sympathized. Every member of the Com- 
mission sought as best he could — subject, of 
course, to the restrictions and limitations of his 
office — to serve the Treasury Department, and 
the Secretary of the Treasury, believing in Civil 
Service, reciprocated. There were, however, 
some rather plain and expressive letters ex- 
changed. Believing that letters that actually 
passed between departments are the best proof 
of conditions as they exist, I have inserted in 
the Appendix the material correspondence cov- 
ering four distinct cases. 

Some of the letters were answered by personal 
interviews but enough remains to show the cor- 
dial feeling that existed, as well as the nature of 
the contentions. It also reveals the earnestness 
with which the Secretary of the Treasury sought 
some relaxation in the rules which friends of the 
system, as well as the members of the Commis- 



Civil Service 169 

sion, insist must be rigidly enforced, and which 
were rigidly enforced. 

The last case cited relates to a request for 
experienced lawyers for special agents of the 
Treasury Department. The necessity for these 
will be apparent to every experienced business 
man. 

Many of the tariff rates are ad valorem, the 
duty being levied upon the foreign market value 
of the imported merchandise. Importers are re- 
quired to enter their goods at the price at which 
such articles are usually bought and sold in the 
country of their origin. Undervaluation by un- 
scrupulous importers is the most common way 
of defrauding the government. Cases of 
alleged undervaluation are tried by the Board of 
General Appraisers, at which the importers are 
represented by lawyers who make a specialty of 
this class of cases. They are not only men of 
experience but many of them possess great nat- 
ural aptitude. Some, I suppose, make as high 
as fifty thousand dollars per annum. The gov- 
ernment is represented by attorneys who receive, 
if I remember correctly, three thousand dollars 
per annum, and the cases are usually prepared 
by special agents, or special employees, who re- 
ceive from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
dollars per annum. The government is at a 



170 Vanishing Landmarks 

tremendous disadvantage. I have heard it esti- 
mated that the Treasury loses two hundred mil- 
lion dollars per annum through undervaluations, 
I think this is excessive but unquestionably it 
runs into tens of millions. 

I desired several country lawyers who had 
had actual experience in trying cases, and asked 
the Civil Service Commission to provide an 
eligible list. The need of capable men in this 
particular branch of the service is well illustrated 
by the following incidents. 

Certain importers were entering their mer- 
chandise, which had been paid for in Indian 
rupees, as costing the bullion value of rupees, 
about twenty cents. England was maintaining 
the parity of the rupee at about fifty cents in 
our money. The Secretary of the Treasury cer- 
tified that the rupee was worth fifty cents and 
directed that duties be collected accordingly. As 
was anticipated, the importers all paid under 
protest and one of them prosecuted an appeal. 
A decision against the government was rendered 
by the Board of General Appraisers and by all 
the courts including the Supreme Court of the 
United States. I ordered that another case be 
made and gave instructions how it should be 
prepared. Again, much to my surprise, the gov- 
ernment was defeated. Investigation showed 



Civil Service 171 

that the second case had been prepared exactly 
like the first. More detailed instructions were 
given and the government was successful, and 
more than one million dollars that had been paid 
by importers under protest, was saved to the 
government and at least two hundred thousand 
dollars per annum from then until now. Any 
country lawyer with a general practice would 
have known how to prepare and present the 
case in the first instance. 

The Treasury Department has several special 
agents in Europe whose business it is to look 
after and discover evidence of undervaluation, 
as well as other frauds upon the revenues of the 
country. The Department knew that certain 
merchandise was viciously undervalued, but the 
special agents all failed to get material evidence. 
Special employees were not then under Civil 
Service and I got an up-state lawyer from New 
York- to accept a position as special employee, 
sent him to Europe and he came back with 
evidence that secured advances in valuations 
which saved the government perhaps fifty thou- 
sand dollars a year from one importer alone. 

Appendix "D" will show the material corre- 
spondence concerning this particular request for 
experienced trial lawyers. My first request is 
dated September 20, 1905; my second, October 



172 Vanishing Landmarks 

14th of the same year. Finally the Commission 
replied and its first letter bears date of Decem- 
ber 2, 1905. It mentions oral requests also 
having been made. Several examinations were 
held but up to the time I left the Treasury 
Department, March 4, 1907, no eligible list had 
been provided containing a single lawyer who 
had ever prepared or tried a case in any court. 
The department needed at least six, could have 
profitably used twelve, but could not and did 
not get one. If interested read Appendix "D." 
You will detect enough spice to give it a flavor 
all its own. 

The correspondence set out in Appendix "C" 
has reference to a tobacco examiner. Tobacco 
intended for Florida was being imported from 
Cuba at a certain inland city and then shipped 
back to Tampa and Key West. The duty on 
unstemmed wrapper tobacco was at that time 
$1.85 per pound and only 35 cents per pound 
on unstemmed filler tobacco. When any bale 
of tobacco contained more than fifteen per cent 
wrapper, the entire bale was dutiable as wrapper. 
There was a further provision that tobacco from 
two or more provinces or dependencies, if mixed, 
should be dutiable at $1.85 per pound, regardless 
of its character. Naturally, a tobacco examiner 
should know something about tobacco. In fact, 



Civil Service 173 

that is the only subject that a tobacco examiner 
need know anything about. The correspondence 
will show the efforts made to secure one and 
the desire of the Civil Service Commission to 
aid, as well as the disaster which it believed 
would follow if the Treasury Department was 
allowed any voice in the manner of the examina- 
tion or in classification of those who took the 
same. 

Appendix "B" has reference to a tea exam- 
iner, another position that, in the opinion of 
the Secretary of the Treasury, should be filled 
by an expert. 

The correspondence with reference to a to- 
bacco examiner began some time in 1904. My 
first rejection of each of the three names certi- 
fied as being eligible is dated December 15, 1904. 
The request for a tea examiner was made some- 
what later. I quote a paragraph from the Civil 
Service Commission's letter of December 9, 
1905, which, though written with special refer- 
ence to the request for eligible trial lawyers, 
mentions both tobacco and tea examiners: 

"Your attention is also invited to the recent 
examination for tea examiner and tobacco exam- 
iner at the Port of . Owing to 

objections by your Department to eligibles cer- 
tified, it became necessary to hold three examina- 



174 Vanishing Landmarks 

tions before a selection was made for tobacco 
examiner and two examinations before a selec- 
tion was made for tea examiner. The exami- 
nations finally resulted in the selection of the 
temporary employees, who, in the judgment of 
the Commission, after careful investigation, have 
no unusual qualifications for the duties to be 
performed and came in at the advanced age of 
sixty-three years. It seemed to the Commission 
so apparent that the examinations in question 
had not resulted in securing to the government 
the services of the most suitable competitors, 
that it became necessary for it to recommend to 
the President that it be relieved of all responsi- 
bility for these examinations and on November 
18th, the President placed in the excepted class, 
one examiner of tea and one examiner of to- 
bacco at the Port of — , which em- 
ployees do not now have the status of competi- 
tive employees." 

It will be noted that the Civil Service Com- 
mission itself finally recognized such a weakness 
in the system that it consented and even recom- 
mended that Treasury officials be permitted to 
select one examiner of tea and one examiner of 
tobacco at one port, though the last phrase 
quoted seems to betray a slight apprehension 
of disaster resulting from there being in the 



Civil Service 175 

United States two examiners, each requiring 
very accurate and technical qualifications, "who 
do not now have the status of competitive 
employees." 

Appendix "A" is limited to two letters writ- 
ten by the Secretary of the Treasury to the 
Civil Service Commission refusing to approve 
rules and regulations which it proposed to 
promulgate, unless the President so directed. I 
will add that the President did not so direct. 
In this instance, as in the last two, the Secretary 
of the Treasury had his way. 

DIPLOMATIC SERVICE. 

While on this subject, I cannot refrain from 
discussing Civil Service as applied to our diplo- 
matic and consular service. 

There is quite a widespread demand that 
everything shall be taken out of politics, and a 
presumption is indulged, that, if this were done, 
all of the evils which now inhere in representa- 
tive government would be cured. Undoubtedly 
men have been rewarded for political service 
with appointments to foreign fields, and some 
of these appointees have been wanting both in 
business experience and education as well as in 
aptitude. On the other hand, it is most unfor- 
tunate if only those who are disqualified for 



176 Vanishing Landmarks 

positions of responsibility are interested in 
politics. If every public position at home and 
abroad were to be filled with those who either 
take no interest in public affairs, or by those 
who are incapable of exerting any political influ- 
ence, do you think the service would be mate- 
rially improved? 

The further criticism is indulged that adminis- 
trations make foreign appointments from among 
their party friends, and utterly ignore adherents 
of the opposite political faith. Has it ever 
occurred to you that when a man is unable to 
find as good and able men among those who 
believe in political doctrines which he advocates 
as are available among his opponents, he ought 
in justice to himself to renounce allegiance to 
the party he believes in, and join the ranks of 
those with whom he disagrees? 

Undoubtedly, the United States has sent some 
chumps abroad, but anyone who has lived long 
in Washington must have recognized that other 
countries also occasionally have chumps in their 
diplomatic service. After some years' observa- 
tion, I asked John Hay, then Secretary of 
State, whose experience at home and observation 
abroad better qualified him to speak than any 
other man in America, how our diplomatic and 
consular service compared with that of other 



Civil Service 111 

countries. Promptly and without hesitation, he 
said: "It is universally recognized everywhere 
that American foreign service is the best in the 
world." 

One might as well expect to develop a suc- 
cessful trial lawyer by confining him to a law 
school all his life, or a successful business man 
by keeping him indefinitely in a business college, 
as to expect to produce an efficient representa- 
tive of American interests abroad by requiring 
him to spend the most virile period of his life in 
studying how to represent these interests and 
all the while keeping him out of touch with the 
interests which he is to represent. A lawyer 
should understand his client's business, if pos- 
sible, better than his client. If he is to represent 
mining interests, he should know metallurgy, all 
processes of mining, reduction of ores and min- 
ing practices, as well as mining laws. Before a 
man can successfully, advantageously and wisely 
represent American interests abroad, he must 
understand American interests at home. He 
must have a practical knowledge of what Amer- 
icans require in foreign countries, and the nat- 
ural effect at home of the things he is trying to 
do abroad. 

When confined to clerical positions, Civil 

Service is a lesser evil than anything else that 
12 



178 Vanishing Landmarks 

has been tried, but it falls far short of being a 
panacea. When applied to positions requiring 
scientific, professional, technical or expert 
knowledge, it is an utter failure. If the govern- 
ment extends beyond its appropriate functions, 
and enters the business arena, Civil Service will 
result, first, in the greatest possible inefficiency; 
second, in political manipulation and control of 
everything, and, third, in transforming a hith- 
erto virile and self-reliant people into a race of 
pap seekers. If the government pursues its 
present trend and enters one field of business 
activity after another it will logically end with 
everyone on the government payroll and all of 
us working for the rest of us and taxing our- 
selves to pay pensions to ourselves. When a 
government once enters the field of paternalism 
there is no place where it can logically stop. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT 

Before increasing the business activities of the 
government and creating an enormous army of 
government officials, clerks and employees, all 
under Civil Service, it is well to consider some 
feasible plan of retirement, for it is a question 
that will not down. 

The discussion of Civil Service as applied to 
governmental industrial operations will be in- 
complete unless it includes the question of retire- 
ment. Shall those who have been for many 
years on the government payroll be pensioned? 
With few exceptions that is what the present 
Civil Service employees desire. They claim to 
have served their country as faithfully, and 
much longer, than soldiers in the army, and 
therefore are entitled to equal recognition and 
honor. 

Most thoughtful people are able to note some 
marked differences. Few who are physically fit 
fail when they seek admission to the army or 
navy, but I have known quite a number who 
have sought government positions in vain. In 
addition to this the pay of the soldier is very 

179 



180 Vanishing Landmarks 

meagre, while that of civil service clerks, in 
normal times, is at least fifty per cent higher 
than the same grade of service commands in the 
business world. The question resolves itself 
therefore into this proposition: Shall those who 
have secured government positions and held 
them for thirty years, when there have been 
thirty thousand other citizens equally patriotic, 
and equally competent, who have sought govern- 
ment employment in vain, be rewarded and 
pensioned because of their good fortune, and at 
the* expense of their less favored brothers and 
sisters ? 

The same argument applies to old age pen- 
sions. Most red-blooded Americans are willing 
to assume responsibility for the support of them- 
selves and their families, and gladly contribute 
in some fair and equitable manner, through 
appropriate processes of taxation, towards pen- 
sioning those who bear arms in defense of our 
common flag, and for the dignity of our country, 
and they are also willing to pay their share 
towards the maintenance of the helpless and the 
unfortunate few. But it is no evidence of yel- 
low that some object to the burden of paying 
pensions to men and women who have no other 
claim thereto than that they have grown old and 
have failed to provide for themselves. 



Civil Service Retirement 181 

Take the case home and apply it to yourself 
and your family. Do you desire the government 
to promise you and your children a pension inde- 
pendent of the manner in which you and they 
acquit yourselves? Or would you prefer to face 
the future in the belief that if you win, through 
merit, the rewards of victory will be yours to 
enjoy, and if you lose you will be expected to 
suffer the consequences, In other words do you 
desire the government to pension you simply 
because you hold a poor hand or play a good 
hand badly? What effect do you think the 
promise of old age pension would have upon the 
rising generation? Is not the youth of America 
already sufficiently wanting in self-reliance? 

The only other way thus far proposed by 
which the government shall support its em- 
ployees in old age, is by means of guardianship. 
This plan seems to proceed upon the theory that 
those who are fortunate enough to secure gov- 
ernment positions, are necessarily unable to look 
after their own affairs, and therefore are entitled 
to a guardian. The proposition is that the gov- 
ernment shall take charge of a portion of the 
earnings of this favored set of American citi- 
zens — withhold part of their salary and deal it 
out to them as a mother does candy to her baby 
lest it overeat or consume it too soon. It is a 



182 Vanishing Landmarks 

pretty weak citizen who needs a guardian, and 
those who do — provided they are compos mentis 
and fourteen years of age — are entitled under 
the laws of most states to select their own. 

Five years' experience led me to recognize 
that new clerks as a rule are better than old 
ones. Those who come with any enthusiasm 
whatever make very rapid advancement in effi- 
ciency, but in a very few years the enthusiasm 
vanishes and hope of advancement is based en- 
tirely on seniority of service. 

Before leaving the Department I recom- 
mended — and am now more convinced than ever 
of its wisdom — that government positions should 
be filled, as now, under the rules of Civil Service 
but that all new clerks should come facing a 
statute limiting the periods of their service to 
five years. Five years of government service, 
especially in the city of Washington, is in itself 
an education. In addition there are excellent 
night schools where clerks can and do pursue 
their studies. Before Civil Service was inaugu- 
rated thousands secured appointments in Wash- 
ington, graduated in law or medicine and went 
forth familiar with the official atmosphere and 
prepared to give the lie to those in every town 
who teach that the Capitol of the Nation is a 
den of thieves. John W. Gates got his start in 



Civil Service Retirement 183 

life as a sixty dollar per month clerk in the Post 
Office Department and spent his evenings writ- 
ing letters for Senator John A. Logan, and 
meeting the big men of the nation who called. 

A limited period in college is of great ad- 
vantage but it would ruin any boy to keep him 
year after year in the same classes, going over 
the same subjects, reciting to the same tutors, 
getting nothing new and all the while segre- 
gated from all practical things of life. Why 
give these plums of official position — and they 
are no less plums because secured under Civil 
Service — to young men and women for life 
when they might be passed around with great 
advantage to that larger body of equally deserv- 
ing citizens who would be benefited by a brief 
experience in public service. 

The present force should be permitted to com- 
plete the tenor of their natural lives in the 
service. The new rule if adopted should apply 
only to those taken on after the enactment of 
the law limiting the period of service to five 
years. Exceptions would have to be made in 
cases requiring technical, professional or scien- 
tific knowledge. Provision would also have to 
be made whereby by executive order, on the 
recommendation of heads of departments, the 
specially competent could be retained. 



CHAPTER XXV 

PROPERTY BY COMMON CONSENT 

The desire that the government shall enlarge its 
functions so as to prevent large accumulations, has 
led to the verge of confiscation of property. 
Several proposed methods of partial or total con- 
fiscation are discussed. 

Originally no one held property by common 
consent, and in the very early history of the race 
I suppose no one gave a thought to what we 
now call "property rights." Even now savages 
seldom claim ownership to anything beyond a 
dog, weapons of the chase, possibly a horse or a 
canoe. Gradually the divinely implanted desire 
for ownership, sovereignty, independence, led 
the more advanced to assert exclusive rights, but 
still they held little if anything by common con- 
sent. Each held what he could by force. Under 
these conditions civilization had its birth. 

As the race advanced and began to feel the 
throb of God-like impulses, and to live in har- 
mony with divine law, consent to proprietorship 
developed. For several centuries, in all civilized 
countries, with here and there a relapse into 

184 



Property by Common Consent 185 

barbarism like the French Revolution of the 
18th century, and the Russian Revolution of the 
20th century, property rights and some measure 
of personal liberty have gone hand in hand and 
have been quite generally recognized and re- 
spected. 

CONSENT WITHDRAWN 

For the first time in the history of an English 
speaking people consent to personal ownership 
is being gradually withdrawn. Unless you have 
studied popular audiences, analyzed current 
magazine articles and scrutinized modern legis- 
lation, probably you have little conception of the 
proportion, even among the respectable and high 
minded, who are committed to some degree of 
confiscation. 

At a joint debate on single tax under the 
auspices of an organization like many styled 
"Academy of Political Science" or "Political 
Science Club" or "Science of Government 
League," which in this instance was an adjunct 
of one of our very large universities, I called 
for a direct expression from the audience upon 
the clear-cut proposition of confiscation of all 
private property. Two-thirds of the audience; 
promptly responded in its favor. That audience 
was composed of "high-brows." They were men 



186 Vanishing Landmarks 

and women who read magazines, attended lec- 
tures, belonged to "uplift" associations and in- 
dulged in mental processes which they thought 
was thinking. I had had similar experiences in 
joint debates on socialism, but had never before 
struck a bunch of incipient anarchists of such 
apparent respectability. 

Some years ago I had the privilege of ad- 
dressing an association of Socialist Clubs at 
Cooper Union. While I have addressed many 
better read audiences I have never seen one that 
had read more. Many of them did little else 
but read. In addition they were a most sincere 
and good intentioned body of men and women. 
There are, as every one knows who has come in 
contact with them, somewhat more than fifty- 
seven varieties of socialists, every one of which 
was well represented that evening. They were 
courteous, they were respectful, they listened 
with manifest interest; but it was easily discern- 
ible that they considered our civilization wrong 
and harmful in the extreme. One could see it, 
feel and taste it. The very atmosphere con- 
veyed to every sense the unmistakable evidence 
that that great body of men and women thor- 
oughly believed that what they termed "Cap- 
italism" had its heel upon their necks. They 
were not rebellious, but it was evident they did 



Property by Common Consent 187 

not intend anyone to be misled into supposing 
that they were unconscious of their conditions, 
or that they intended to acquiesce longer than 
necessary. 

In the campaign of 1918 the "single-taxers" 
of California made their third and great attempt 
to confiscate land values in that beautiful state. 
The issue of July 20th of "The Great Adven- 
ture," an official organ of the single-tax propa- 
ganda, printed upon its front page in heavy 
double leaded type this announcement : "Single 
tax will put these big land values into the public 
treasury and leave the Ground Hogs nothing to 
rent but the actual value of their buildings/ 3 

The January, 1918, number of "Everyman," 
another of their official organs, contained a well- 
considered article lauding conditions in Russia, 
and promising the same for California. I quote 
briefly: "The people of Russia, who only yes- 
terday were semi-starving slaves to a tinsel aris- 
tocracy, are now for the first time living upon 
their own lands, in their own homes, and work- 
ing in their own fields and factories. They have 
dispossessed landlords and profiteers; and all 
who work have plenty. People do not starve 
where there is none to take the food out of their 
mouths. Famine is a result of human exploita- 
tion. When the people of any country go 



188 Vanishing Landmarks 

hungry it is because they are denied access to 
natural resources. The people of Russia have 
taken their natural resources, and also their in- 
dustries and they will not go hungry. . . . 
Out of darkest Russia has come the great light 
of actual freedom; and there is every reason to 
hope she will soon have the weakest government 
in the world, which means, of course, the 
strongest, bravest, truest and most united peo- 
ple. . . . That is what we are striving to 
do in California, but we won't stop with the land. 
We will only begin there. We could not stop 
there; the tide is too strong. It will bear us on 
into the new world of economic friendship." 

The same issue of "Everyman" gave a word 
picture, for the truth of which it vouched, of 
what it termed "Zapataland" — 90,000 square 
miles in Mexico — where it claimed confiscation 
had wrought its legitimate and beneficial results. 
It claimed the same conditions would be accom- 
plished in California through the adoption of 
the single tax amendment to the Constitution 
as had been wrought in Mexico with the musket. 
It says: "In Zapataland they have no need for 
money. Is it food you want ? Go to the market 
and help yourself. Do you need shoes or a hat? 
Go and take what you need ! Have you a fancy 
for jewelry? Go make your selection. . . . 



Property by Common Consent 189 

In some of the centers the women of Zapataland 
clamored for finger rings and bracelets. The 
elders consulted. They melted down some of 
the church ornaments, and in a few months 
baskets full of the envious shining trinkets were 
in all the Plaza shops. Help yourself. . . . 
Labor is plentiful. Everybody wants to work 
at least a few hours a day — they insist upon it. 
'Give me that shovel! You have been digging 
there for a couple of hours or more. Let me dig 
awhile.' 'Here, you, stop straining yourself. 
Go and rest. I am stronger than you.' . . . 
In Mexico, the propaganda was carried on with 
'30-30's'. The Zapata army went from valley 
to valley, from village to village, and dispos- 
sessed the owners." 

Such stuff is well calculated to deceive almost 
anyone except those who have seen a Mexican. 
For three successive campaigns California was 
flooded with that class of literature, its boasted 
purpose being confiscation. The organization 
back of the propaganda, with ample endowment, 
purposes to use California as an object lesson 
and to extend the principle throughout the 
nation. 

For the benefit of any who thus far have not 
appreciated the gravity of this most plausible 
attack upon property rights, and therefore have 



190 Vanishing Landmarks 

not studied the question, I make the following 
brief statement of the case as it appeals to a 
very large number. 

Henry George, the great apostle of single 
tax, was a very able man. I do not say he was a 
very wise man. Great intellects frequently lead 
to great errors. 

Every advocate of single tax legislation has 
been a faithful disciple of Henry George. No 
one has added a new argument, stated an old 
argument with greater force, or reached a dif- 
ferent conclusion. None of his followers has 
ever apologized for anything Henry George 
ever said, or refused to stand or fall with the 
great originator of the scheme. Therefore, to 
quote Henry George is to quote the best author- 
ity, and all authority. 

I propose, therefore, to make a few extracts 
from Henry George's standard work on the 
subject — the great text book of single-taxers — 
"Progress and Poverty." 

He begins and ends his argument with the 
proposition that God made the land, the sea, 
and the air, for his children collectively, and has 
never granted the exclusive right to any part 
thereof to king or subject. All pretended grants 
and conveyances, therefore, have been fictitious. 
Relying upon this argument, he holds that all 



Property by Common Consent 191 

natural resources still belong to the people col- 
lectively, and confiscation in the interest of all 
is justified. 

On page 401 of "Progress and Poverty," 
he says: "But a question of method re- 
mains. How shall we do it? We should 
satisfy the law of justice. We should meet 
all economic requirements by at one stroke 
abolishing all private titles, declaring all 
lands public property, and letting it out to 
the highest bidder in lots to suit." 

On page 403 he says : "I do not propose 
either to purchase, or to confiscate property 
in land. The first would be unjust; the 
second needless. Let the individuals who 
now hold it still retain, if they want to, 
possession of what they are pleased to call 
their land; let them continue to call it their 
land; let them buy, and sell, and bequeath 
and devise it. We may safely leave them 
the shell, if we take the kernel. It is not 
necessary to confiscate land ; it is only neces- 
sary to confiscate rent." 

Again, on the same page, he says: "We 
already take some rent in taxation. We 
have only to make some changes in our 
mode of taxation to take it all." 



192 Vanishing Landmarks 

Thus it will be seen that Henry George, with 
all his intellect, was mentally dishonest. His 
heart-beats were sympathetic, but his mind 
wobbled. He was able to perceive nothing dis- 
honest when I sold my acres, or my lot, invested 
the proceeds in stocks and bonds, and then by 
my vote exempted my property from taxation, 
and placed all the burdens of government on the 
purchaser of my land. 

He would have seen no injustice in a govern- 
ment of the people establishing Rural Credit 
Banks, as has been done, loaning millions, with 
mortgages as security, upon lands purchased 
from the government, then inducing widows and 
orphans to buy securities issued against these 
mortgages, and finally taxing the value of the 
real estate away, thus leaving the widows and 
orphans to beg their bread from door to door. 

The American people are inherently and in- 
tuitively honest and just. Do you think it 
would be just, after the people, through their 
Congress and their president, had granted the 
homesteader a patent title in fee simple, now to 
tax its value away? As Henry George says, 
the effect is the same as confiscation. He calls 
it "taking the kernel and leaving the shell." 



CHAPTER XXVI 

EQUALITY OF INCOME 

The inevitable effect of equality of income, assum- 
ing it could be accomplished, is discussed. 

Two or three years ago George Bernard 
Shaw had a prize article in the "Metropolitan" 
in which he advocated "Equality of Income" as 
a panacea for all the ills that afflict civilization. 
I remember he urged that if all had equal in- 
comes the race would be improved; for there 
would be greater freedom of selection. He 
seemed to deplore the fact that under present 
conditions "men and women meet in parks and 
other public places, recognize natural affinity" 
so promptly responded to by some but are never- 
theless kept apart because of this iniquitous in- 
equality of income. However much the man 
may be attracted by the personality of the lady 
he will not humble himself to make advances if 
she gives evidence of being financially beneath 
him; while his advances will be spurned if he 
bears the marks of a more meagre income than 
she enjoys, 
is 193 



194 Vanishing Landmarks 

It was the same old free-love doctrine, and 
the author argued at length to show that in- 
equality of income thus seriously interferes with 
the free course of "natural affinity" and hence 
retards the coming of the "superman." He did 
not in that article suggest how he would equalize 
incomes. Suppose we study, for a moment, not 
how to accomplish it, but the effect of its con- 
summation. 

If equality of income would be a panacea 
now — if it would solve the ills we have and pre- 
vent others — it would have worked w r ell from 
the beginning. Imagine therefore that instead 
of following the divinely implanted impulse to 
acquire, to hold, to exercise sovereignty, to 
achieve, the race had remained as it was when 
it had no income, and therefore when no in- 
equality of income existed. Would churches 
and cathedrals have been built? Would colleges 
and universities have been founded? Would art 
and literature have flourished? Would America 
have been discovered? Equality of income 
would have left Queen Isabella with no jewels 
to sell with which to purchase the Santa Maria. 
In fact there would have been no Santa Maria 
to purchase. The race would have remained 
where the race started. Inequality of income 
began when incomes began. Inequality of 



Equality of Income 195 

income marks the birth of civilization, and if 
civilization ever dies " equality of income' 3 should 
be the title of its dirge. 

The wealth of the United States is about 
twenty-five hundred dollars per capita. Assume, 
if you please, that all our property could be and 
has been converted into cash. Then assume that 
the rest of the world is able and willing to 
supply our every need and our every want so 
long as our money lasts. We would eat and wear 
out the accumulation of the centuries in less than 
three years, and find ourselves back where our 
fathers began, with this awful handicap: our 
natural resources would be seriously impaired. 

The world lives from the income and accretion 
of the ages, supplemented by daily toil. The 
accumulation of the past becomes invested capital 
for the benefit of the present. Had our fathers 
refused to work long hours, to practice self- 
denial, and in every way to be frugal, we would 
not be enjoying the multiplied blessings with 
which we are surrounded. If we work less hours 
than is good for us, and consume our inheritance, 
we will be indeed "ignoble sons of noble sires," 
and our children will be poor indeed. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

AN HISTORICAL WARNING 

The teachings of Rousseau, which logically- 
resulted in the French revolution, wherein the 
confiscation of property was the prime purpose, 
is compared with some of the teachings of today. 
History that should constitute an ample warning 
is cited. 

We have been sowing what Rousseau was 
permitted to sow and from which was reaped 
the French revolution. The "Social Contract" 
taught that property as understood today did 
not exist. The citizen simply held it in trust for 
society. For under the "Social Contract" each 
"surrenders himself up absolutely, just as he 
actually stands, he and all his resources, of which 
his property forms a part." The next logical 
step in the revolution was to discharge or recall 
the trustee, and thus vest the property again in 
society itself. That was done. George W. 
Hinman in "Can We Learn Anything from 
History?" summarizes this recall of trusteeships 
as follows: "Society proceeded to recall its 

196 



An Historical Warning 197 

trustees as fast as 'Society' needed the property. 
It recalled the trusteeships of all the church 
property, $800,000,000; of all the property of 
exiles, $600,000,000; of all the property of the 
guillotined and condemned, $200,000,000 ; of all 
the property of hospitals and charitable institu- 
tions, $200,000,000; of all the state domains 
sold and rented in the last three hundred years, 
$400,000,000; of all the gold and silver vessels 
and specie, $100,000,000; of all the property of 
other institutions, valuables and common goods, 
$700,000,000. Then it recalled the trusteeships 
of coats and trousers, growing crops, pots, ket- 
tles, pans and mattresses. In one town it re- 
called the trusteeship of ten thousand pairs of 
shoes from ten thousand pairs of feet, and thus 
condemned ten thousand former custodians of 
this property to go about their tasks barefooted 
in the snow." 

Not only this but the government extended 
confiscation by means of income tax until the 
whole of every income in excess of six hundred 
dollars was to be taken. Taine, the historian, 
summarizes thus: "Whatever the grand terms 
of liberty, equality and fraternity may be, with 
which the revolution graces itself, it is in its 
essence a transfer of property. In this alone 
consists its chief support, its enduring energy, 



198 Vanishing Landmarks 

its primary impulse and its historical signifi- 



cance." 



Hinman summarizes thus: "The people in a 
body is infallible; unlike individuals it can make 
no mistakes. Therefore we should not trust 
government to individual representatives or 
agents but to the pure and direct democracy. 
But we cannot have direct democracy at its 
purest without equality of condition. To get 
equality of condition we must get equality of 
property. To get equality of property we must 
correct the inequalities of the past and present. 
Therefore to correct these inequalities we invent 
the theory of trusteeship of property, recall the 
trustees, and take possession of all unequal 
properties in the name of society. 

"That is the whole cycle; that is the great 
revolution! Twenty-five years in preparation, 
eleven years in actual practice, fourteen years 
in immediate consequences; fifty years all told 
and that is sum, substance and essence from the 
beginning to the end, a transfer of property! 
A transfer of property without compensation! 
A confiscation of property beyond appeal and 
beyond recall! There were movements also 
against the church, and against the family, but 
the transfer of property far surpassed them both 
in size and in significance. 



An Historical Warning 199 

"That the convulsions attending the movement 
were more spectacular than the movement itself; 
that a million persons were stabbed, drowned, 
shot, beheaded and hunted to death within the 
borders of the nation; that wars were started 
that strewed Europe with 5,000,000 dead; that 
the oppression was far more ferocious than 
under Louis XIV, that the waste of government 
was arithmetically four times greater than under 
the most wasteful monarchy ; that a whole nation 
was bathed in blood, bankrupted in morals, and 
rotted in character to the core — all of these 
things, hideous and appalling as they may be, 
distracting and absorbing as they may be, are 
still but as colossal incidents. The chief move- 
ment through this sea of blood and wilderness 
of death was the transfer of property/' 

Nevertheless, Robespierre — the bloodiest man 
who had ever lived, the bloodiest man who ever 
has lived outside of Russia, and the bloodiest 
man who ever will live unless socialism gets con- 
trol in the United States — was an idealist. He 
resigned the bench rather than pronounce sen- 
tence of death upon a convicted criminal. He 
read Rousseau's "Social Contract" every day. 
He was the leader in the "uplift" movement of 
the age in which he lived and sought to produce 
Utopian conditions of "liberty, equality and fra- 



200 Vanishing Landmarks 

ternity" throughout France. While an Inter- 
nationalist he sought to reform and transform 
France before extending his field of influence. 

But being self-willed as well as self-opinion- 
ated, at the first appearance of opposition he 
threw down the challenge. There was "some 
fight in him and he liked it." He appealed 
directly to the people and condemned to the 
guillotine everyone who had the temerity to 
resist his efforts to ameliorate human conditions. 
While seeking everywhere for property to con- 
fiscate, and heads to guillotine, he made the 
most elaborate speech of his career: 

"Our purpose is to substitute morality for 
egotism, honesty for honor, principles for cus- 
toms, duties for proprieties, the empire of rea- 
son for the tyranny of habit, contempt of vice 
for indifference to misfortune, dignity for inso- 
lence, nobility for vanity, love of glory for love 
of money, good people for society, merit for 
intrigue, genius for intellectual brilliancy, the 
charm of contentment for the satiety of pleasure, 
the majesty of man for the high breeding of the 
great, a magnanimous, powerful and happy peo- 
ple for amiable, frivolous and wretched people; 
that is to say, every virtue and miracle of the 
republic in the place of the vices and absurdities 
of the monarchy." 



An Historical Warning 201 

I submit this is pretty good rhetoric and ex- 
cellent diction. Though it means absolutely 
nothing, it must have sounded well to the pro- 
letariat. For a while the people idolized Robes- 
pierre, as they usually idolize an idealist of ready 
utterance, and they followed him to the limits of 
democracy. The whole population of France 
transformed themselves into an organized mob. 
The principal difference between pure democ- 
racy and the ordinary mob is little else than 
that the former maintains a form of organization 
while the latter is unorganized. Both, being 
devoid of wisdom, follow impulse. As between 
the two, the unorganized mob is probably prefer- 
able to pure democracy, for it is shorter-lived, 
and in the end does less injury. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

CAPITAL AND LABOR 

Among the dangers threatening the republic is the 
warfare which admittedly exists between capital 
and labor, the manifest tendency of which is in the 
direction of bolshevism. 

One need not have read the preceding pages 
to recognize that the United States is fast ap- 
proaching a crisis. Industrial and social unrest 
is everywhere apparent. The representatives of 
capital and the representatives of labor are at 
grips, while management, the all-essential factor 
of business, seems helpless to accomplish recon- 
ciliation. 

More than once in the history of the world an 
organized minority has wrecked a nation, but 
this is the first time that the issue has been 
directly presented to the American people. 

The ranks of labor seem to be divided, but this 
division is seeming and not real. The conser- 
vative wing, led by the president of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, no less than the radical 
wing, seeks absolute control, both of production 
and of transportation. The two wings differ 

202 



Capital and Labor 203 

only as to the means to be employed to an ulti- 
mate end. The conservatives believe they can 
compass dictation and control through diplomacy 
and political intimidation. The radicals have no 
confidence in these methods. They entertain no 
hope of victory except through revolution and 
bloodshed. 

When given free reign the representatives of 
capital enforced unbearable terms, and at least 
threatened the liberties of the people. This re- 
sulted in legislation forbidding federations, con- 
spiracies and combines in restraint of trade — 
that is, against the interests of the people. Thus 
far the representatives of labor have enjoyed 
statutory exemption from anti-trust laws, are 
now enforcing unbearable terms, and are some- 
what more than threatening the liberties of the 
people. 

Their carefully formulated demands, submit- 
ted to both political parties by the American 
Federation of Labor, include, by logical sequence 
at least, the unqualified and unrestrained right to 
organize, to federate, to conspire, to strike either 
for actual grievance or in sympathy; thereby 
suspending all production, tying up all transpor- 
tation, meantime enjoying statutory exemption 
both from injunction and from damages because 
of broken contracts. In other words, two million 



204 Vanishing Landmarks 

organized laborers demand the right to freeze 
and starve one hundred and ten million hitherto 
supposedly free Americans into subjection. In 
addition to all this I quote the following demand 
which they include: "The payment of such 
wages as will render old age and retirement pen- 
sions unnecessary." I submit the wealth of the 
world would be insufficient to do this. With very 
rare exceptions he who does not save will not 
save. 

Neither capital nor labor is a commodity, 
though the one can be hoarded while the other 
must be consumed day by day or it is wasted 
forever. Each is an essential of industry, and 
each represents a contribution to industry by 
living men and women. Each group of con- 
tributors should be accorded the same protection, 
given the same encouragement, and should be 
subject to exactly corresponding responsibilities. 

Admittedly the representatives of labor are no 
more intelligent, they possess no greater vision, 
and evidence no greater patriotism than the 
representatives of capital. Therefore the nation 
would be in no wise safer in the clutches of those 
who contribute labor, and little else, than in the 
grip of those who contribute capital and also a 
very large share of that rarest of all the essen- 
tials of business, management. As I have 



Capital and Labor 205 

sought to show elsewhere in this volume, 
"equality before the law" is the only equality 
possible, and the republic which fails to grant, 
and likewise to enforce, "equality before the law" 
is unworthy of the name republic. 

For some years the representatives of capital 
seemed to dominate the affairs of the nation. 
Today the only people who neither seek nor exert 
political influence are the representatives of 
capital. At the first show of hostilities, at the 
first fight, they took to their heels in a regular 
"Bull Run." Few of them have been seen since. 
They are too scared even to contribute to a non- 
partisan propaganda of Americanism. Large 
numbers of them do not even vote. This is a 
great misfortune and a dangerous loss to the 
republic. It would likewise be a misfortune and 
a serious loss if the representatives of labor were 
to refuse to vote or to exert political influence. 
Originally this was supposed to be a nation of the 
people, and duly chosen representatives who are 
in closest touch with every element of society, 
with every phase of production and transporta- 
tion, as well as domestic and foreign commerce, 
should have voice in legislation, and also in ad- 
ministration. I repeat : If we have escaped 
the clutches of capital, only to find ourselves 
fast within the strangle-hold of labor, we have 



206 Vanishing Landmarks 

indeed jumped from the frying-pan into the fire. 

But neither those who contribute capital nor 
those who contribute labor should be legislated 
against; though each group should be restrained 
within limits. Representatives of capital have 
been wisely permitted to organize; for instance, 
the United States Steel Corporation. Others 
have organized the Bethlehem Steel. Each of 
these unions of capital — these corporations — 
has the admitted right to suspend operations at 
its respective plants until prices are satisfactory ; 
but they are expressly prohibited, and should 
they attempt it they would be enjoined, from 
federating, or conspiring with each other, either 
for simultaneous suspension or doing any other 
thing for the purpose of advancing prices. The 
men who contribute labor for each of these great 
corporations must 'have the corresponding right 
to form unions, and I think each should be per- 
mitted to suspend work until wages are satisfac- 
tory. But as corporations are forbidden to 
combine and conspire to the prejudice of the 
people, I think labor unions should be likewise 
restricted, and if necessary restrained. It is only 
when federations of unions are formed and con- 
spire that the public welfare is endangered. 

No one need be told that if all the corporations 
of the United States were permitted to place 



Capital and Labor 207 

their affairs in the hands of a single financial 
institution, or to have unlimited interlocking 
directors, the public would be at their mercy. 
Exactly analogous, and in a far greater degree, 
the American people are at the mercy of organ- 
ized representatives of labor, and solely because 
labor unions are permitted to federate and place 
their activities under one unified control. Less 
than ten men, unrestrained by self-interest, 
public opinion, or the courts, can starve and 
freeze the American people into subjection, and 
in this way effect actual confiscation of all prop- 
erty. If our candidates for Congress yield to 
present demands of organized labor nothing less 
than industrial collapse will afford relief; and 
this will be at such an awful price. The loss of 
employment — the loss of an opportunity to ex- 
change a day's work for a dime, — conditions 
which I have thrice witnessed, — is the greatest 
calamity that has thus far befallen Americans 
en masse. Under those conditions labor unions 
dissolve like hoar-frost. No man quits his job or 
demands more pay or shorter hours. Can no 
other release from the thraldom imposed by an 
organized minority be found? 

Every organization is appropriate, and en- 
titled to encouragement, so long as it functions. 
Service being the only legitimate consideration 



208 Vanishing Landmarks 

for reward, it follows that organizations of 
farmers, bankers, physicians and laborers 
function only when they seek to increase effi- 
ciency so they may receive the appropriate re- 
wards of better service. When any of these 
ceases to function it becomes a peril. 

There is an old fable of a man who had an ox 
that he worked with a donkey. One day the ox 
refused to function, and at night asked the 
donkey how matters had progressed without him. 
"I had a hard day," said the donkey, "but I 
lived through it." "Did the boss say anything 
about me?" asked the ox. "Not a word," said the 
donkey. The next night the ox made the same 
inquiry and received the same reply. Again the 
ox asked, "Did the boss say anything about me?" 
"Not a word," said the donkey, "but coming 
home he stopped to talk a little while with the 
butcher." The next day the ox functioned. 

I submit that when an organization represent- 
ing manufacturers, or bankers, or farmers, or 
coal operators, or laborers, attempts to dictate 
the terms on which production may be continued, 
it is time to talk with the butcher. The Consti- 
tution of the United States contains no provision 
under which representatives of capital can claim 
the right to organize even a corporation, or the 
representatives of labor the right to form a 



Capital and Labor 209 

anion. "Public policy'' is the only justification 
either for corporations or labor unions, and they 
are appropriate only when by means thereof 
better service can be rendered, and the liberties 
of the people remain unencroached upon. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

CAN THE CRISIS BE AVERTED? 

Our troubles have resulted in part from false 
teachings, which are leading us farther and farther 
afield, and in part from want of recognition of a 
human element in every human. 

The alarming conditions before which we all 
stand aghast have been brought upon us, in no 
small degree, by false teaching with respect to 
the end and purpose of government. Possibly 
disaster may be averted by a speedy return to 
fundamental Americanism; but, whatever may 
ensue, no citizen can boast his patriotism until 
he has sought a remedy, and no one is a patriot 
who will not sacrifice everything necessary to 
save the situation. 

Lest I be unduly accused of pessimism I cite 
one, and only one, of thousands of public utter- 
ances bearing directly on the case. A gentleman 
of excellent presence, and seeming patriotism, 
was a candidate for Congress in a Middle West- 
ern state far more conservative than some East- 
ern states. In his campaign he made extensive 
use of a pamphlet, "The Revolution." In quoting 

210 



Can the Crisis Be 'Averted? 211 

him I in no degree question his sincerity of pur- 
pose. He reminds one of an evangelist of the 
olden times. He commends the vision of 
Ignatius Donnelly when he prophesied the 
approaching cataclysm: "The people cannot 
comprehend it. They look around for their de- 
fenders — the police, the soldiers ; where are they ? 
Will not this dreadful nightmare pass away? 
No, never! This is the culmination — this is the 
climax; the century's aloe blooms today." He 
adds — this candidate for Congress in the year 
1916 adds : "These are the grapes of wrath which 
God has stored up for the day of His vengeance ; 
and now He is tramping them out, and this is the 
red juice — look you — that flows so thick and 

fast in the very gutters Evil has but one 

child — Death. For years you have nourished 
and nurtured evil. Do you complain if her mon- 
strous progeny is here with sword and torch? 
What else did you expect? Did you think she 
would breed angels?" Then after explaining 
that he does not speak "these bitter words in the 
spirit of challenge, but with the kindliest, deepest 
feeling of love for humanity, and with the most 
fervent and patriotic feeling of veneration for 
my country — the grandest country in the world, 
but now being systematically robbed," he warns 
"the masters of the bread" thus: "I warn them 



212 Vanishing Landmarks 

that if they want 'red hell,' with all the accom- 
panying fireworks — with all the attendant bru- 
tality, the crime, and suffering, and misery, and 
degradation, and sorrow, and death, with the 
destruction of their cities, and the wiping out of 
their so-called civilization, they can have it just 
when they most desire. It is up to them. The 
revolutions of the past will be but kindergarten 
affairs compared to the revolution now pending, 
and coming when someone strikes a match in the 
powder-house." 

LEGISLATION IS NO PANACEA 

It is recorded that the children of Israel, once 
upon a time, got into serious difficulty through 
worshiping a golden calf while Moses was in the 
mountain getting the Moral Law. If Ameri- 
cans are idolatrous — and they seem not to be free 
from this sin — the object of their up-to-date 
worship is "statute law," to the neglect of under- 
lying principles which make a multiplicity of 
laws unnecessary. In the last ten years 65,000 
new statutes have been enacted by the Congress 
of the United States and the legislatures of the 
several states, and approved by their executives. 
Meanwhile the evils against which these enact- 
ments were directed have been but slightly, if at 
all, abated. 



Can the Crisis Be Averted? 213 

It is recorded that King Knute, in whom was 
vested the sovereignty of a nation, once issued 
his decree against the incoming tide. But the 
tide did not obey. In America the sovereignty is 
vested in the people, and the pulpit, the platform 
and the professor's chair have been teaching that 
"we the people" are omnipotent. The fact re- 
mains, however, that the laws of nature, the laws 
of economics and the laws of society are not 
amenable to statutes and edicts, whether pro- 
mulgated by a sovereign or enacted by a sov- 
ereign people. 

Benjamin Franklin was in the habit of open- 
ing the Junta Club with this interrogatory: 
"Have any of you observed any recent encroach- 
ments upon the just liberties of the people?" If 
the old sage were to return, and again call his 
society to order, he would be compelled to ask: 
"Have any of you observed any just liberties of 
the people that have not been recently encroached 
upon, or at least threatened?" 

Though we surrender every liberty which the 
fathers prized, though by statute we dissolve 
every corporation and every labor union, though 
we deport every alien-born radical now teaching 
anarchy from the soap-box, though we discharge 
and silence every native-born "red" now teaching 
anarchy from professor's chair or pulpit, though 



214 Vanishing Landmarks 

we suppress a thousand publications advocating 
in more or less veiled form revolution by violence, 
none of these, nor all of these combined, would 
permanently effect the cure. The disease is too 
deep-seated. It has gotten into the very blood 
of the nation. 

A DIAGNOSIS 

Before a disease can be treated with hope of 
success its cause, no less than its manifestations, 
must be studied? 

American industries and internal improvement 
were begun with American labor. When these 
industries outgrew the domestic labor supply 
immigrants were brought in under contract. 
When Congress forbade the admission of con- 
tract labor, and wages continued to advance 
until, as we have seen elsewhere, labor was being 
relatively better rewarded than capital, the world 
heard of it and contributed a polyglot mass of 
all kinds, tongues and complexions. Naturally 
American-bred boys and girls did not fancy 
working side by side with foreigners who could 
not speak the English language, who knew noth- 
ing of republican institutions and American 
ideals, and who were strangers to American 
standards of living. So the American youth 
ceased to accept work, regardless of the wage, 



Can the Crisis Be Averted? 215 

and sought "a situation." Anything was accept- 
able provided it required the use of only one 
arm. 

The schools caught the contagion and began 
teaching that while "labor is honorable" it is also 
"very undesirable." The atmosphere of the 
school-room is "get an education and you'll never 
have to work." To such an extent does this 
sentiment prevail that there are thousands upon 
thousands of skilled laborers, especially in the 
iron, steel and coal industries, whose children are 
clerks in stores, janitors in banks, assistants to 
photographers, and some of them even have the 
word "attorney" over their office doors, who 
board at home and live from the earnings of their 
honorable and indulgent parents. Where is all 
this to end? Some one's children will have to 
work, and they should willingly, even joyously, 
work. Now the man who works from choice is 
seldom other than foreign-born. Why? 

In thousands of establishments operatives are 
known only by number. Think of an American 
citizen, outside of a penitentiary, being identified 
and known by number! Will any wage satisfy 
that man? Would any conceivable salary 
satisfy you if compelled to stand in line on pay- 
day and accept a pay-envelope bearing only the 
numerals "1357"? An increased wage may 



216 Vanishing Landmarks 

temporarily appease a man thus environed, but 
it will fall far short of satisfying his heart 
hunger. 

There are only two demands that the ordin- 
ary laborer knows how to make : He can ask for 
shorter hours, and he can demand more wages. 
But neither will satisfy, for neither is the thing 
he needs. What he needs is recognition. He 
may not consider it as such, but I consider it an 
insult to pin a number on any man or to number 
his pay-envelope. Most men fight when called 
an "it." I will go further and say it is at least 
belittling to call a laborer "John" or "Bill" or 
any first name. Banks, railroad companies, 
hotels and other institutions and concerns have 
at last learned enough of human nature to know 
that it increases efficiency, exactly as it increases 
self-respect, to place the name of the cashier, the 
teller, the ticket agent and the room-clerk with 
the prefix "Mr." in a conspicuous place. Every- 
one prefers to be addressed at least as "Mr.," 
and the lower his station the more welcome is the 
sound of his surname. Pride of family is thus 
delicately awakened. Army officers are insulted 
when their rank is omitted from the salutation. 
The only exception is when they are addressed as 
of the rank to which they aspire. United States 
senators are mildly flattered when addressed as 



Can the Crisis Be Averted? 216a 

"Mr. Senator," and piqued when called "Mr." 
The common title "Honorable" will not satisfy a 
senator, a judge, a governor, a cabinet member 
or any army officer. Good salesmen resort to 
subtle compliment and address their prospective 
customers at frequent intervals, sometimes using 
the title "Colonel" or "Judge" and never less 
than "Mr." I saw a newsboy twenty-five years 
ago sell W. J. Bryan a back number of a 
Nebraska paper simply by addressing him thus, 
as he stepped from his train when he was passing 
through Des Moines: "Mr. Bryan, don't you 
want a paper from home?" When I saw him 
turn that trick I did not wonder he had accu- 
mulated $10,000 selling papers. Some sleeping- 
car porters even examine baggage to enable them 
to call passengers by name. They will tell you 
they are well paid for their trouble in increased 
tips. And yet people who understand all this 
will designate their employees by number, or 
at best by their abbreviated first names. Are 
laborers any less human because they are 
laborers? 

If I wanted to increase self-respect, and there- 
by both efficiency and contentment within a 
factory, I would, as far as possible, place the 
name of each operator, with the prefix Mr. or 
Mrs. or Miss, over each bench, upon each loom 



216& Vanishing Landmarks 

and above each machine where my brother man 
was to work. I would omit nothing that might 
awaken the consciousness of the man at the bench 
that he and the man at the desk were jointly 
operating the plant and mutually responsible 
for both the quality and the quantity of the out- 
put. 

An American citizen has a right to recognition 
wherever he may honorably stand. In the great 
distribution of the world's work a certain post 
has fallen to him. No one can trace the causes 
that led to his own allotment. But he who meets 
the requirements of the position he is called upon 
to fill, whatever it may be, is a good and worthy 
citizen. He is more than an "it," more than 
"Jack," and the employer who designates him by 
number, or in any manner less respectful than he 
expects in return, is deficient in knowledge of 
human nature. 

Being unable to formulate the natural long- 
ings of the heart, the average laborer limits his 
demands to the things that the walking delegate 
tells him are the only things necessary: "shorter 
hours, more pay and recognition of his union." 
Recognize the man himself and he will forget his 
union. Though he gets all he asks, the real need 
of his being remains unsatisfied ; then he repeats 
his demand. When his employer seeks to do 



Can the Crisis Be Averted? 216c 

something for him instead of doing many things 
together with him he resents both his charity 
and his patronizing sympathy, and spurns his 
advice. 

Men who are required to deal with men, and 
especially those who are in constant touch with 
large numbers of subordinates, ought to give 
primary study to human nature. They may 
safely omit the study of angelic nature until they 
join the angels. Not much of this latter brand 
will be found within the ranks of either employ- 
ers or employed. 

Suppose we continue this analysis of human 
nature a little further, for therein only may we 
expect to find the seed of truth that shall, if 
nurtured, fructify in blessings to us all. 

A few years ago the Chamber of Commerce of 
one of our very large cities gave a Lincoln day 
banquet at which the then Speaker of the House 
of Representatives was the guest of honor. 
Among the wise philosophies that fell from his 
experienced lips was this: "I do not know your 
personal genesis, but I will guess that less than 
fifty years ago nine out of ten of the intelligent, 
virile leaders of production, who own and repre- 
sent capital, as well as the high officials of your 
state and of the nation who sit at this table, were 
bright-faced school-boys in the common schools 



216d Vanishing Landmarks 

'building castles in Spain.' If this Chamber shall 
repeat this banquet a half century hence you will 
find your successors in the public schools of today 
'building castles in Spain'." 

The thought I gather from the foregoing is 
not the trite expression, "The youth of today is 
the adult of tomorrow," nor that the public 
school is the nursery of greatness. The truth 
conveyed to my mind is that the boy who shall 
grow to prominence in business or in a profession 
or in public service is the youth who "builds 
castles in Spain" — who imagines, who hopes, and 
who goes out to fight and to pay the universal 
price for the fulfillment of his dreams. Is our 
complex civilization robbing our youth of that 
greatest of all essentials of greatness, imagin- 
ation? 



"I stand at the end of the past; where the future 
begins I stand. 

Emperors lie in the dust, others shall rise to com- 
mand; 

But greater than rulers unborn, greater than 
kings vdio have reigned 

Am I, that have hope in my heart and victories 
still to be gained. 

Under my feet the world, over my head the sky, 

Here at the center of things, in the living present 
ami." 



CHAPTER XXX 

INDUSTRIAL REPUBLICS 

While democracy as a form of government spells 
ruin, democracy in society spells America in her 
best estate. The possibility of industrial republics 
is suggested. 

While talking about democracy in govern- 
ment we seem to have lost our conception of 
democracy in society. What better can we 
expect from democracy in government than 
France's experience, when the voice of the peo- 
ple was declared to be the voice of God? But 
social democracy is a very different thing from 
a democratic form of government, and has well 
nigh become a lost blessing. 

When the socialist talks about "Industrial 
Democracy" he means a democratic form of 
government, with all industries under popular 
management. That is one extreme. The capi- 
talist demands industrial autocracy. That is the 
other extreme. 

In a previous chapter I have tried to show 
that when the Fathers formed this government* 

217 



218 Vanishing Landmarks 

their experiences, as well as their knowledge of 
history led them to fear the monarch. The 
French Revolution was about to burst into 
what its promoters promised should be the 
purest form of democracy which the world had 
ever seen, and the Fathers were justly appre- 
hensive. Dreading the mass quite as much as 
they feared the monarch, they chose the middle 
course. They chose representative government. 
j I wonder if there be a middle course between 
J industrial autocracy and industrial democracy. 
Is it possible for business concerns and manu- 
facturing plants to create within their organiza- 
tions industrial republics where each employee 
shall have some actual voice, and through their 
representatives sitting in deliberative bodies, 
analogous to our legislative branch, originate 
and recommend or approve reforms and im- 
provements subject, of course, to a veto by a 
cabinet ? 

Many methods of profit sharing have been 
tried and they have usually worked advantage- 
ously, but admittedly they fall far short of the 
requirements. So-called cooperative industrial 
concerns have been created with some measure 
of success, yet the real problem remains un- 
touched and as complex as ever. Labor has 
never established a cooperative industry worthy 



Industrial Republics 219 

of the name, except as Mallock shows in "The 
Limits of Pure Democracy," 1 when the actual 
operation of the concern has been placed in the 
hands of an oligarch whose administration is as 
arbitrary as that of any captain of industry. 
Only in that way has it been possible to supply 
management, the most essential element, as we 
have seen, in any enterprise. Labor has some- 
times found the capital, but capital and labor 
without management are impotent. A goodly 
number of corporations have encouraged and 
even assisted their workmen to buy stock, which 
is a very good and meritorious policy. It may 
tend to alleviate but it fails to cure. 

Mallock clearly shows that every successful 
government unites the elements of autocracy and 
democracy. Even the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment granted certain powers to the people, 
while the Constitution of the United States 
clothes the president with powers in certain re- 
spects rivaling those of the kaiser. The power 
of veto which the Constitution vests in the pres- 
ident exceeds any prerogative possessed by the 
king of England. On the other hand the power 
to make war rests with Congress, while in Great 
Britain it requires no parliamentary act. Mal- 
lock enlarges upon this thought and shows that 

Published by E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. 



220 Vanishing Landmarks 

socialist organizations and labor unions are suc- 
cessful only because they are arbitrarily man- 
aged. Their so-called leaders are, in fact, oli- 
garchs. The Russian Revolution, like the French 
Revolution, was avowedly of democratic origin, 
but in fact both were as despotic as anything 
the world has ever seen. The strength and 
grandeur of the government of the United 
States, as established by the Constitution, lies in 
the most happy combination and blending of 
these two fundamental principles, popular sov- 
ereignty and centralized strength. 

The primary difficulty in solving the so-called 
labor question lies, I think, in failing to recog- 
nize the individuality — the personality of the 
employee. Some tiny share of profits is offered 
in lieu of increased wages and it is accepted as 
a mere sop. The offer of stock at a price below 
the market, with easy payments, is looked upon 
as a cheap way of tying the hands of the em- 
ployee, and as an insurance against strikes. I 
think I am safe in saying that in a very large 
majority of cases where any of these methods 
have been tried the men have resented them, and 
in some instances spurned them. Then the em- 
ployer concludes that labor will not accept de- 
cent treatment, closes his ears, his mouth and 
his heart and proceeds to get all he can and to 



Industrial Republics 221 

give as little as can possibly be forced out of 
him. 

If the basis of masculine happiness is, as I 
have tried to show, the divinely implanted desire 
for creatorship, sovereignty and achievement, 
then we will find it impossible to satisfy the sub- 
conscious longings of the human heart with 
shorter hours, increased wages, or with some 
slight share of profits in lieu of increased wages. 
If I am right in my analysis the pathway of 
access to the real man in the overalls — and a real 
man is in the overalls and must be discovered — 
is by some scheme that will necessarily recognize 
him as a real, thinking and potential entity. 

Most humans prefer to be called "citizens" 
rather than "subjects." Autocrats speak of their 
subjects. In republics there are no subjects. 
All are fellow citizens. If this thought can be 
carried into the industrial world, the "citizens" 
therein will find their heart hunger appeased, 
their hope inspired and they will lift their heads 
into the clearer atmosphere of industrial oppor- 
tunity, and possibility of ultimate social recog- 
nition. If the theory of evolution has any foun- 
dation in fact the species began to lift its head 
with the first impulse of hope, and its whole 
body stood erect when the consciousness dawned 
of being human. A free, brave and hopeful 

1G 



222 Vanishing Landmarks 

people never went mad. Desperation and fail- 
ure of recognition is the parent of revolution. 
Most anyone will fight when called "it." 

Pardon a little personal observation which has 
direct bearing upon increased efficiency result- 
ing from no other cause than recognition and 
hope. Forty years ago immigrants from both 
Germany and Sweden came from Castle Garden 
to my town every few days. They had been 
born "subjects" and they toiled after their arrival 
as they had toiled before as "'subjects." They 
moved with the air of "subjects." In my imag- 
ination I can see those German families coming 
up the middle of the street in wooden shoes, 
single file, the man ahead empty handed except 
his long pipe, the wife close behind with a baby 
in her arm, and a big bundle on her head, and 
the children in regular succession according to 
age, which seldom varied more than two years. 
There must have been some hope in the man's 
heart or he would not have left his native coun- 
try. But neither his gait nor his other move- 
ments betrayed it. These immigrants immedi- 
ately sought and secured employment, but they 
were not worth much the first month or so. It 
did not take long, however, until it would dawn 
upon them that opportunity had actually 
knocked at their door. A few Sunday after- 



Industrial Republics 223 

noons on the porch of friends who had left the 
Fatherland as poor as they, and who were now 
comfortably situated, plus a wage scale of which 
hitherto they had only been told, transformed 
those big fellows. I am not exaggerating when 
I say they would do without urging from fifty 
to one hundred percent more work six months, 
and often six weeks, after their arrival than 
when they came. They had begun "building 
castles in Spain." They were dreaming dreams 
and the central figure in every vision was a home 
of their own, and personal recognition. Instead 
of being subjects they had determined to be- 
come citizens. 

Can this transformation still be wrought? If 
it can all danger is past. Of one thing I am 
certain. It cannot be done by legislation. 



CONCLUSION 

I came to man's estate thoroughly believing 
that the Constitution of the United States is 
the greatest chart of liberty ever penned by man ; 
and nothing that I have seen, nothing that I 
have heard, and nothing that has transpired in 
all my mature life has shaken my faith. 

I think I must have been born an optimist. 
From earliest recollection I have liked the 
rooster that crows in the morning better than 
the owl that hoots in the nighttime. And what 
is best of all, the surroundings of my childhood 
and youth were exceedingly hopeful. I have 
seen few hours of discouragement and none of 
despondency. Despising the pessimist, I have 
resolved, and am resolved, that nothing shall 
dim my hope or weaken my confidence either in 
my country or in the American people, and yet 
in spite of myself I sometimes feel a very un- 
welcome impulse. 

I observe the teachings of Jefferson forsaken 
and instead of the minimum of government 
and the maximum of liberty, more and more 

224 



Conclusion 225 

of government and less and less of liberty. I 
see ignored the warnings of Washington against 
weakening the energy of our governmental sys- 
tem by making changes in the Constitution. I 
mark the trend away from representative gov- 
ernment towards direct government, a policy 
that has wrought ruin whenever and wherever it 
has been tried. I note the growing disrespect 
for authority in the home, in the school and on 
the street, coupled with certain slurs at the forms 
of law, as well as for judgments and decrees 
rendered in harmony therewith, emphasized by 
bald and naked threats to undermine and, if 
possible, overthrow our entire judicial system. 
I overhear the subtle suggestion to our youth 
that they need give no thought for the morrow, 
for the government will soon insure employ- 
ment; that it is folly to make themselves effi- 
cient, for the government will sooner or later 
guarantee wages regardless of merit; that they 
need not practice thrift, for the government will 
ultimately pension their old age regardless of 
profligate habits or vicious living. I discover a 
growing recognition of capitalistic, industrial 
and even servant classes, with attempts at class 
legislation, all subversive of republican ideas, 
republican traditions and republican institutions. 
When I realize that all this is as yet only a 



226 Vanishing Landmarks 

verdant growth from socialistic, not to say anar- 
chistic seed sown broadcast with scarcely a pro- 
test, and knowing that a harvest must yet be 
garnered, I am at times apprehensive. 

But I am reminded that this is the people's 
government. If they want it this way it is 
their business and not mine. If they make a 
mistake they are abundantly able to respond in 
consequences. All of which is true, but the fact 
that it is true, and awfully true, only emphasizes 
the importance of alert men in the watch towers. 

Recognizing the existence of the greatest 
crisis of all time, a crisis wherein all that we call 
Christian civilization is imperiled, and being un- 
able to hold my peace I have produced what I 
hope shall be considered an argument. I have 
tried to prove scientifically that the fathers were 
wise beyond their generation. Nothing is scien- 
tific that will not stand the test of application. 
I consider the unschooled George Stevenson a 
scientist of the first order. He thought out, and 
worked out, a safety lamp for the protection of 
coal miners, who during every hour of their toil 
stood in imminent danger of explosions. Then 
to prove that he was scientifically correct he bad 
himself lowered into the mine in the nighttime, 
and, standing there alone, thrust his lighted 
lamp into the escaping gas. The achievements 



Conclusion 227 

of the past afford proof positive that our form 
of government, our policy and our purpose of 
government were scientifically correct. It can- 
not be exploded or overthrown. Its only danger 
is from those of its own household, the children 
of its own institutions, who may undermine it. 

Even the most casual reader must have dis- 
covered that in a very marked degree we have 
departed from the teachings of the Fathers. 
This we have done first in our form of govern- 
ment, and secondly in our purpose of govern- 
ment, both of which tend strongly to bolshevism, 
sometimes called socialism, and sometimes called 
"pure democracy." It might as well be called 
Rousseauism. The name is immaterial. The 
thing itself is the same old snake that first 
charms, then strangles, covers its victim with 
ooze and swallows at leisure. 

There is little in the book except what the 
writer considers has direct bearing upon one or 
the other of three major propositions. First: 
Representative government was the correct 
principle when established, and therefore is cor- 
rect now and will be correct to the end of time. 
Second : The government was originally correct 
in granting liberty of action to the citizens and 
in limiting its own activities to strictly govern- 
mental functions. Third: Each and every de- 



228 Vanishing Landmarks 

parture from correct principles or wise policies 
has led by one pathway or another in the direc- 
tion of bolshevism. 

No people will ever outgrow correct prin- 
ciples of government any more than they will 
correct principles of agriculture. The fact that 
times have changed, that inventions have revo- 
lutionized industry and that improved methods 
of transportation have annihilated space, do not 
in the slightest degree make erroneous a correct 
principle of government any more than they 
render false a principle of nature. If the law 
of gravitation were a provision of the Federal 
Constitution, there were many in the United 
States who would have sought to amend it when 
the "Titanic" went down. They would have 
argued that when the principle was promulgated 
by the Great Law Giver, there were neither ice- 
bergs nor steamships. 

The argument that the people are wiser now 
than they were is false. The Constitutional 
Convention contained a larger proportion of 
college graduates than any convention that has 
since assembled anywhere, and some of the 
wisest, and safest and most experienced were 
not college men. The people who came to 
America prior to 1787 came for motives as 
lofty as have actuated those of recent years, 



Conclusion 229 

and in character, breadth of purpose and intel- 
ligence they compare favorably with immigrants 
of today. In addition, they had many advan- 
tages which we do not possess. They had time 
to think, the prime essential of greatness. They 
had neither the inclination nor the opportunity 
to read news items from all over the globe in 
three or four editions of a metropolitan news- 
paper, which professedly prints only news, but 
prints it several times each day. Meditation is 
necessary for a statesman whether he be required 
to discharge his responsibility in the halls of 
legislation or permitted to do so at the polls. 

In defending our form of government, I have 
submitted a brief argument for an independent 
judiciary. This should be unnecessary in any 
country enjoying and professing adherence to 
Anglican liberty. In justification I plead the 
growing disrespect for, and the multiplied at- 
tacks upon, our whole judicial system. 

I have also sought to show by the record, as 
well as by some reference and analysis of human 
aspirations and emotions, that the governmental 
policy pursued for many years was correct, and 
therefore is and will be correct forever. If I 
have failed to make it clear that for more than 
one hundred years the government fostered 
every industry and fathered none, I have made 



230 Vanishing Landmarks 

poor use of the material at hand. I have sought 
to show that the government merely safeguarded 
the liberties of the people, while her citizens pur- 
sued their happiness and won it in achievement, 
which, in regular sequence, made the nation 
great. If the argument has any force, it should 
lead irresistibly to the conclusion that if America 
expects to make further advancement, the only 
sure way is to return to these fundamental 
principles. 

I have referred to and briefly discussed bol- 
shevist or socialist doctrines, including confisca- 
tion of property, only because they are all in- 
volved in the departure from the policy of the 
fathers. When the Republic changed its course 
little by little away from granting liberty and 
affording opportunity and began to restrict and 
to absorb what the citizen had formerly enjoyed, 
the way was opened for all the elements of 
revolution. To understand the gravity of the 
situation one must study the logical effect, and 
to comprehend the effect some reference to sim- 
ilar movements in France and Russia is neces- 
sary. 

I have sought to strengthen the argument 
against governmental interference in purely 
secular affairs by showing the unavoidable handi- 
cap the government is under when it enters the 



Conclusion 231 

field of business. This has occasioned some an- 
alysis of the Civil Service system, with illus- 
trations of its actual operations. 

That my country will return to its original 
form and purpose, I am more than hopeful; 
yea, I am confident. It must be that the United 
States will revert to representative government 
in its original simplicity. It cannot be other- 
wise than that a wise citizenship will again select 
their representatives because of aptitude and will 
retain them in positions of responsibility until 
they shall have acquired efficiency through expe- 
rience, gauging their worth, the while, by results 
rather than by subservient obedience. An ambi- 
tious people, resourceful and hopeful, virile and 
expectant will certainly take their government 
out of business, and confine its operations to the 
legitimate functions of government. All the 
traditions of the past, all the teachings of the 
Fathers, all the warnings of history are against 
paternalism. No government ever made or will 
make a people great except as it guarantees 
liberty whereby the people shall make them- 
selves great. No people ever have made or will 
make themselves great by relying upon their 
government to do for them the things which the 
Almighty intended — yea decreed — that they 
should do for themselves. 



APPENDIX A 

UNSKILLED LABORERS 

Treasury Department, Nov. 11, 1903. 
To Civil Service Commission: 

Your letter of November 4th relative to the 
adoption of rules governing the employment of 
laborers in the Federal Service at Boston is at 
hand. I will have occasion to take the matter up 
with the President, and if he desires the rules 
signed I shall be glad to comply. Otherwise I 
shall decline. 

My principal objection is the fact that para- 
graph 6, "Definition of Classified Work," con- 
tained in the regulations governing the employ- 
ment of classified laborers, adopted July 23, 
1903, has proved very impracticable. In fact 
that Department not only violates these rules 
every day, but ignores them and is compelled to 
do so. I am also advised that the Civil Service 
Commission not only violates them, but ignores 
them. I respect the Commission for doing this, 
and my respect would not be diminished if it 
would repeal such regulations as have to be ig- 

232 



Appendix A 233 

nored by the very men who promulgate them. 
The fact that they are thus ignored by the Civil 
Service Commission is supported by the clear 
and repeated statement of a member of the 
Commission, made in my office. 

And this is not all. It is well nigh impossible 
to secure from the skilled laborer register of the 
Commission persons who are willing to perform 
the menial service which is required of unskilled 
laborers. The rule referred to forbids our tak- 
ing unskilled laborers from our payroll to per- 
form this menial service, and permit them inci- 
dentally to perform service that requires a 
knowledge of reading and writing. We are now 
in the midst of a prolonged correspondence with 
the Civil Service Commission over a case arising 
at San Francisco where the offense was that an 
unskilled laborer., assigned to handle merchan- 
dise, was permitted to go to a pile of bales and 
boxes on the docks and select a package that was 
needed for examination, and exercised his ability 
to read the number on the package. Had some 
skilled laborer gone with the unskilled laborer, 
to read the number, and had then informed the 
unskilled laborer that that package bore the 
desired number, all would have been well. Un- 
der the rules for which you are contending it 
requires two men to get a package, when either 



234 Vanishing Landmarks 

one can get it alone, and then it takes a man and 
a stenographer in this office to conduct the cor- 
respondence that grows out of the offense of 
allowing either one to do it unaided by the other. 
If the President wants this condition inaugu- 
rated at Boston and other ports, as well as at 
San Francisco, I shall be very glad to see that 
it is done. 

I will be very glad to co-operate with the Civil 
Service Commission to improve the service in 
this Department, not only in Boston but in every 
port. I am a firm believer in Civil Service, and, 
I may add, in the machinery of Civil Service 
but I am more interested in improving the prod- 
uct than in perfecting the machine. So far as 
I am concerned I will not voluntarily sign and 
promulgate rules for the mere sake of signing 
and promulgating rules. I will co-operate to 
the fullest extent in anything that will improve 
the service. Very respectfully, 

Leslie M. Shaw. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR MALE UNSKILLED LABORERS 

Treasury Department, Jan. 26, 1904. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 

Your letter of the 14th inst, submitting for 
approval a statement of physical requirements 
for male unskilled laborers is received. 



Appendix A 235 

I am unalterably opposed to a graduated scale 
of physical ability. If a man of medium weight, 
130 lbs., and minimum height, 5 ft. 3 in., and 
with strength to carry a minimum weight, 150 
lbs., is to be marked 70, as you propose, then a 
man weighing 200 lbs., 6 ft. tall, and able to 
carry 200 lbs., would I supposed be marked 80; 
and a man weighing 300 lbs., 6 ft. 5 in. in height, 
and able to carry 500 lbs., should be marked 100. 
No one would have such a man around. He 
would be physically incompetent. Either a man 
is physically competent or he is not. Most of 
the defects referred to as sufficient to justify 
rejection are all right. I have no objection to a 
list of competents being made and from that 
list we will select. But I would rather base my 
judgment upon the appearance of an applicant 
who would come into the office and say "good 
morning" and retire than all the physical exami- 
nations that the Civil Service Commission can 
give. 

I do not care to prolong the correspondence; 
I simply will not consent to accept unskilled 
laborers on a graduated scale of physical ability. 
I do not care whether a man can lift 150 lbs. or 
400 lbs. when there be only 10 lbs. to lift. 

Very respectfully, 
Leslie M. Shaw. 



APPENDIX B 

TEA EXAMINER 

Treasury Department, Dec. 15, 1904. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 

I am in receipt of your communication of 
November 21st certifying three names from 
which to select a Tea Examiner. 

I hereby file objection to each and all of the 
persons so certified because of mental unfitness 
for the position for which they apply. 

There is no tariff duty on tea and the sole 
purpose of examination of tea is to protect the 
American people from cheap and deleterious 
preparations. A competent tea examiner must 
be able to pour hot water on a sample of tea 
and by tasting, tell within five cents per pound 
of what it is worth, and to determine accurately 
whether the sample is composed of tea or of 
some imitation or preparation thereof, and 
whether it has been adulterated. Whether he 
can speak the English language or sign his name 
is immaterial. If he knows tea, and is honest 
and incorruptible, the American people will get 
protection. These men know no more about tea 

236 



Appendix B 237 

than you or I and they are as unfit for the place 
as either of us. 

In proof of the foregoing, one of the names 
certified is that of a clerk in the Customs Service 
and is known to this Department to be wholly 
unfit for Tea Examiner. He is a clerk and 
not a Tea Expert. 

Another is a bookkeeper, and has been con- 
tinuously thus employed since 1886, and knows 
nothing about tea and does not pretend to. 

The third is now an opener and packer in the 
Customs Service and admits that all he knows 
about tea is the fact that he once sold coffee. 
The serious side of this matter is the absolute 
and literal truth of the foregoing. 

Some conception of the importance of the 
position may be gained from the fact that over 
three hundred packages of alleged tea have been 
excluded in the last ninety days at that port 
alone. Very respectfully, 

Leslie M. Shaw. 

The balance of the correspondence is unim- 
portant in view of the Commissioner's letter of 
Dec. 9, 1905, practically one year thereafter, 
quoted page 173, and in which the Commission 
states that after two examinations, on its recom- 
mendation the place was excepted by the Presi- 
dent and filled independent of Civil Service. 

16 



APPENDIX C 

TOBACCO EXAMINER 

Treasury Department, December 15, 1904. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 

I am in receipt of your letter of the 12th inst. 
certifying three names eligible for selection as 

Tobacco Examiner at the port of . 

I hereby file objections to each and all because 
of mental unfitness for the position for which 
they apply. 

The Tariff Duty on unmanufactured tobacco 
is in part as follows : 

Per lb. 

Wrapped Tobacco, unstemmed $1.85 

Wrapped Tobacco, stemmed 2.50 

Filler Tobacco, unstemmed 35 

Filler Tobacco, stemmed 50 

Filler Tobacco, if packed or mixed 
with more than 15 per cent of wrap- 
per tobacco, unstemmed 1.85 

If stemmed 2.50 

Tobacco, the product of two or more 
countries or dependencies when 

238 



Appendix C 239 

mixed, unstemmed 1.85 

If stemmed 2.50 

This is sufficient to show the importance of 
the position and the necessity of having an 
expert tobacco man as examiner. No one of 
these certified is competent. The first is a clerk 
and stenographer. He has been a letter carrier 
and is now a clerk in the Customs House at 
$1,200.00 per annum. He is a professional Civil 
Service Examination taker, and admits having 
"crammed" as he terms it for this examination. 
He has never had anything to do with the 
tobacco business except that he was once stenog- 
rapher to a tobacco merchant. 

The second is a storekeeper and clerk in the 
Customs Service. He has had no experience 
whatever in tobacco except to have seen bales of 
tobacco while storekeeper for the government. 

The third has been a cigar maker but does 
not pretend to know anything about the tobacco 
business except a little experience in making 
cigars from tobacco purchased by others, and 
that in a very small way. He is in my judg- 
ment wholly unprepared to protect the revenues 
of the government against the frauds contin- 
ually attempted by unscrupulous importers, who 
pursue the line of least resistance, and bring 
their tobacco to the port where deception is least 



240 Vanishing Landmarks 

likely to be detected. He is equally unprepared 
to protect the honest importer from competition 
with the unscrupulous. 

In kindness but in honesty let me say that the 
man who conducted the examinations has no con- 
ception whatever of the qualifications needed in 
a tobacco examiner. . , . These applicants 
may be nice men, and they may wear good 
clothes, and they may speak good English, and 
may be men of integrity, but no one of them is 
fit to hold the very important position to which 
he aspires, and for the simple reason that he 
knows nothing at all about the only thing he 
needs to know anything about, to- wit : Tobacco ! 
Very respectfully, 

Leslie M. Shaw. 

The balance of the correspondence is unim- 
portant in view of the Commission's statement 
in its letter of Dec. 9, 1905, quoted page 173, 
that after three examinations the President on 
request had excepted one tobacco examiner and 
the place had been filled independent of exami- 
nations. 



APPENDIX D 

Correspondence between the Secretary of the 
Treasury and the Civil Service Commission in 
re Trial Lawyers. 

Treasury Department, Sept. 20, 1905. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 
Gentlemen : 

I wish you would hold an examination for 
special agents at the earliest possible moment. 

As I explained to your Mr. the other 

day, the Department needs some special agents 
with legal training. Not all special agents need 
legal training, but there are many times when 
cases have to be prepared for presentation to 
the Board of General Appraisers, or to the 
Court, where legal experience is almost essen- 
tial. I will give you an illustration: Not long 
ago I needed to send a man to Europe to inves- 
tigate alleged undervaluations in crockery and 
china ware. I had the matter investigated by 
three special agents and special employees with 
no satisfactory results. They did not know what 
was essential, and did not seem to know evidence 
when they saw it. I then appointed an expe- 

241 



242 Vanishing La?idmarks 

rienced lawyer as special employee and sent him 
over. The evidence he collected ought to secure 
a fifty percent advance on these goods. 

I want to urge that in this instance you pre- 
pare the questions so as to exclude everyone who 
is not an experienced lawyer. I also desire to 
see the questions before the examination is held. 
I want to cooperate with the Commission, and I 
urge the Commission to cooperate with me in 
getting material absolutely necessary to good 
administration. 

Very truly yours, 
Leslie M. Shaw, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 

SECOND LETTER 

Treasury Department, October 14, 1905. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 
Gentlemen : 

How are you progressing preparatory to the 
examination for special agents? I am very 
anxious that this shall be done at the earliest 
possible moment. I have a well-defined policy 
that I would like to put in operation before I 
retire. 

Very truly yours, 

Leslie M. Shaw. 



Appendix D 243 

FIRST LETTER FROM THE COMMISSION 

December 2, 1905. 
The Honorable 

The Secretary of the Treasury: 
Sir: 

Referring to the examination for special 
treasury agents which you desire this Commis- 
sion to hold and with respect to which you 
make oral inquiry today, the Commission has 
the honor to state that the questions on govern- 
ment, law, and customs matters prepared by 
your Department have been given careful con- 
sideration. It is the opinion of the Commission 
that the questions are of such a character that 
they might be answered by a person without 
testing his qualifications for the position of Spe- 
cial Treasury Agents, and that, on the other 
hand, failure to answer the questions would not 
indicate lack of qualification for such position. 

The Commission is sincerely desirous of co- 
operating with your Department in securing 
competent persons for the service, but it does 
not believe that an examination along the lines 
indicated in the material submitted by your De- 
partment would have the desired effect. 

The Commission very seriously doubts whether 
the position of Special Agent can be filled as 



244 Vanishing Landmarks 

satisfactorily by open competitive examinations 
as by transfer or promotion of trained and ex- 
perienced employees in the service who are fami- 
liar with the workings of your Department and 
especially with customs matters. 

Very respectfully, 



Commissioner. 

REPLY TO FOREGOING 

Treasury Department, December 5, 1905. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 

I am in receipt of your letter of the 2nd rela- 
tive to an examination for Special Agents to 
the Treasury Department. 

I know you will pardon me if I insist that I 
know better the necessary qualifications of Spe- 
cial Agents than any person who knows nothing 
about it whatever. If there were experienced 
employees in the service who could be trans- 
ferred I certainly should do so rather than to 
await an examination. You will remember a 
personal interview I had with you about this 
some months ago, and several requests, some of 
them personal and some of them in writing fol- 
lowed by the preparation of the questions in this 
Department, still followed by oral inquiry to 
which you courteously refer. I will explain 



Appendix D 245 

again that I need some lawyers in the Special 
Agent Force. The government loses millions 
every year (and I speak within bounds) for 
want of suitable preparation of cases for pre- 
sentation to the Board of General Appraisers. 
I want men who know evidence when they see 
it and who know how to present a case. I do 
not want a physician or a preacher, but I do 
want and must have lawyers. I care very little 
whether they know anything about Customs 
matters or not — they can learn that but they 
may know everything about Customs matters 
and cannot become lawyers. I have clerks in 
the Department who have graduated in law but 
that does not make a lawyer of a man. I know 
what the Department needs, and I want that 
need supplied. Please advise whether you will 
hold the required examinations or whether I will 
have to fill the vacancies with incompetent clerks, 
or by executive order. If you will join in a 
request that suitable men be put into this im- 
portant work by executive order I will let the 
Civil Service Commission make the nominations 
from a list which I will furnish, or I will ask 
them to furnish the list and I will make the 
nominations. I am not trying to escape the 
Civil Service, for I heartily believe in it when 
so applied as to bring material that can be used 



246 Vanishing Landmarks 

to bring results. I appreciate your expressed 
desire to co-operate and I only ask that you 
make it good by co-operating. 

Very truly yours, 

Leslie M. Shaw. 

LETTER FROM THE COMMISSION 

December 9, 1905. 
The Secretary of the Treasury: 

The Commission has the honor to acknowl- 
edge the receipt of your letter of the 5th inst. 
in which are indicated your wishes with respect 
to the proposed examination for Special Agents. 

In reply your attention is invited to the gen- 
eral questions on government, law and customs 
matters which have been submitted to the Com- 
mission by your Department. Of the fifty-three 
questions so submitted, fifteen are of a general 
character and could be readily answered by any 
law student. Only three relate to evidence in 
any form. These are of such an elementary 
character that they may be found in any text 
book on the subject and are not sufficient to 
bring out a satisfactory knowledge of evidence. 
There are thirty-seven questions bearing directly 
upon customs matters although your letters indi- 
cate that a knowledge of the subject is not to be 
required of applicants. After careful considera- 



Appendix D 247 

tion of the matter and in view of your recent 
letter it is believed that the questions submitted 
by your Department are not suitable for an ex- 
amination of Special Agents. 

After discussing the responsibility which the 
Commission must bear the letter proceeds: 

In this connection your attention is invited to 
an examination for law clerk, Class 4, held for 
your Department in April, 1903. This exami- 
nation was prepared along the lines indicated by 
you and your statement that only graduates of 
reputable law colleges who had had at least three 
years practical experience subsequent to gradua- 
tion would be acceptable to the Department, was 
incorporated in the announcement. The exami- 
nation consisted principally of practical ques- 
tions in law and the preparation of opinions 
upon stated cases. Of the 367 persons who 
competed only 20 attained eligibility. The re- 
sults of this examination were very unsatisfac- 
tory to the Commission and to a large number 
of the competitors who felt that injustice had 
been done them. It is understood that several 
persons who were regarded by the officials of 
the Treasury Department as qualified for the 
position failed in the examination. A large 
number of appeals from the ratings were re- 
ceived, some of them being from men who were 



248 Vanishing Landmarks 

graduates of the best law schools in the country 
and who had many years experience in the prac- 
tice of law in the general field. 

Then follows reference to examinations for 
Tobacco and Tea Examiners quoted in Chapter 
xxiii ; and the letter closes as follows: 

The Commission is strongly of opinion that 
in the entire force of the Treasury Department, 
comprising as it does many thousand employees, 
persons can be found who possess suitable quali- 
fications for Special Agents. 

Very respectfully, 



Commissioner. 

Treasury Department, December 11, 1905. 
To the Civil Service Commission: 

For three months I have been trying to get 
some lawyers on the eligible list that I may im- 
prove the Special Agent Service, and I am this 
near success: I have had the solicitor for this 
Department prepare a list of questions to be 
submitted with others which the Commission 
may be pleased to prepare. I have not exam- 
ined the questions. They were prepared by 
Judge O'Connell, who has been a practicing 
lawyer of extensive experience for twenty years, 
and has several times served on the committee 



^Appendix D 249 

to examine applicants for admission to the Su- 
preme Court of his state. These questions your 
Commission refused to use and declined to pre- 
pare others. You tell me that I must fill the 
vacancies from clerks in the Department. This 
I will never do. The vacancies will remain while 
I remain unless I can fill them in a way that in 
my judgment will improve the service. Possibly 
some clerk in your Department can prepare a 
better list of questions than Judge O'Connell 
has submitted. If so I have no objection. In 
fact I have no objection to any course you may 
be pleased to pursue and I have no further sug- 
gestions to make. I only ask that some time 
within a year or so the Civil Service Commission 
get a few lawyers within reach for the special 
service where lawyers are necessary. The gov- 
ernment loses millions every year for the want 
of men in the Special Agent force, competent 
to prepare cases for submission to the Board of 
General Appraisers. If the Commission shall 
elect to assist me in the premises I shall appre- 
ciate it very much, and if it declines to act in 
the future, as it has declined in the past I shall 
submit, unless I can devise some other way to 
improve the service. 

Very truly yours, 

Leslie M. Shaw, 



250 Vanishing Landmarks 

commission's rejoinder dated dec. 20, 1905, 

We are clear that vacancies in the position as 
Special Agent cannot be satisfactorily filled by 
open competitive examinations. . . . 

. . . If it be your desire as indicated in 
your letter that we should hold an examination 
for law clerk we will do so; and if you wish to 
make use of that register in filling vacancies in 
the position as Special Agent, it is of course 
your privilege to do so. 

Very respectfully, 



Commissioner. 

Thereupon the Secretary of the Treasury 
made request: 

"Replying to your letter of December 20th 
handed to me by your Mr. and in har- 
mony with our verbal understanding I request 
that the Civil Service Commission hold an ex- 
amination, giving it such name as it may deem 
appropriate but so arranged as to exclude all 
but graduates from law colleges, and who in 
addition have had not less than three years ex- 
perience in active practice including trial of 
cases in Nisi Prius Courts. I desire to make 
use of these clerks as Special Agents. They 
should be eligible for appointment direct or by 



Appendix D 251 

immediate transfer without waiting six months. 
I need them now, and will be pleased if the 
Commission will expedite the examination in 
every possible way." 

On December 29, 1905, the Commission sub- 
mitted draft of an announcement of an exami- 
nation for law clerks in the Treasury Depart- 
ment and added: "It is requested that the an- 
nouncement be returned to this office at your 
earliest convenience with such suggestions as 
you may desire to make in regard thereto." 

Suggestions were made January 4, 1906. 

"I suggest that you eliminate from the first 
paragraph the following: 

'In making certifications to positions in the 
Customs Branch of the Treasury Department, 
consideration will be given to experience show- 
ing familiarity with Customs Law and practice 
in Customs Cases.' 

There is not a lawyer in the United States 
who has had experience in Customs Cases whom 
I would appoint Special Agent, except those 
who are earning five times what the position will 
pay. There are some in the cities, and especially 
in New York, quite a number of disreputable 
fellows who have had some experience in prac- 
tice in Customs Cases, but there is not a New 
York lawyer of experience in Customs jCases 



252 Vanishing Landmarks 

whom I would appoint Special Agent except as 
I say those who would not accept. I care noth- 
ing for familiarity or practice in Customs Cases. 
What I want is a man competent to practice in 
Customs Cases, and with integrity enough to 
justify his appointment." 

As already stated, without fault of the Com- 
mission no lawyer who had ever tried a case in 
any court was ever made eligible and the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury could secure one only 
from the eligible list. There was an eligible list 
of law clerks but no list of lawyers. 




mSSSf. OF CONGRESS ™ 



027 273 598 



